


lilies blooming within a dream

by yououui



Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, High School, Love, Romance, Romantic Soulmates, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:46:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 68,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24641950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yououui/pseuds/yououui
Summary: Cloud doesn't think his life is anything special—he's just a normal teenager trying to get through high school. Or hewas,until one day he begins having strange dreams; dreams of himself carrying a large sword; dreams a beautiful flower girl he can't seem to part from; dreams of a life the complete opposite of the one he is living.Cloud's life is interrupted by another he can't remember, and he is left to figure out if this is destiny working to keep certain souls together... or maybe something more.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife
Comments: 88
Kudos: 335





	1. reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all and thank you for joining!  
> This will be a chaptered story, so please subscribe if you're interested!
> 
> There will be spoilers for FFVII OG and Remake, so proceed with caution.

_The first thing he sees are kids, running around with toy swords strapped to their backs. They yell in delight and squeal with glee and declare that they are going to become fighters one day, so they can protect their friends._

_“I’m gonna be just like Cloud one day!” One of them cries. They all cheer in agreement and run off somewhere. His vision pans as he surveys the area; he’s surrounded by shabby houses that look like they were built with any materials that could be found lying around. There’s a bigger building with tables outside of it where a woman yells for the kids to come to their lessons._

_“Cloud, would you mind finding them for me?” The woman asks. She’s smiling apologetically and wringing her hands together._

_He blinks, then nods at her. He turns to the direction the kids ran in, but he stops before he can chase after them. Instead, his gaze lifts, but he doesn’t see the blue expanse of the sky or feel sunshine warm his skin. What hovers overhead is steel, an impressively large plate of metal that stretches on for miles._

_He looks down from the sky when he feels something take hold of his wrist. He sees pale hands grasping him, gleaming bracelets circled around slender wrists. His own hand is covered with a worn leather glove that climbs up the length of his arm. The hand holding him lifts his wrist and with it, he raises his eyes._

_His vision goes hazy and brief flashes partially blind him as he tries to look at the person in front of him. All he can see are brilliant green eyes and smiling lips._

_“Let’s go, Cloud,” The girl before him says. He nods and follows where she leads._

_“Cloud!!!_ You’re going to be late!”

Cloud startled from sleep with a gasp. At first, he just stared up at his ceiling, but then he noticed his alarm blaring on his bedside table so he reached over to slap blindly at it until it turned off. He rested the back of his hand over his forehead and blinked, his eyes landing on the window, the bright morning sky, the promise of a beautiful day. No steel.

A knock at his door made him jump. “Are you up yet?” He heard his mother ask from the other side.

“Y-Yeah!” Cloud called back to her. He threw his covers off and swung his feet off the bed and to the floor. He took a moment to take a breath and run a hand down his face; the dream he’d had was… odd. It was realistic in a way Cloud had never felt when dreaming before and for some reason, it left him with a tight feeling in his chest, the kind of feeling he’d used to have when he would wake from nightmares as a kid.

He shook his head to chase away the memory of the strange dream and got up to get ready. He quickly changed into his school uniform—simple black pants, black jacket, and a white button up shirt underneath—then washed up and ran downstairs. His mom was at the dining table, bent over some documents from work. She lifted her head to point at the empty bowl and box of cereal waiting for him on the counter and then went back to whatever it was she was doing.

Cloud quickly thanked her and scarfed his breakfast down. He grabbed his book bag and headed for the door, but from over his shoulder he heard, “Wait just a minute!”

He stopped and turned to face his mother. “I gotta go,” He told her as he tried to step back.

She grabbed the collar of his shirt to stop him and buttoned up the first few buttons he intentionally left undone. “How many times have I told you to wear your shirt properly? And shouldn’t you wear your tie?” She asked him.

“It’s not required mom,” He told her as she buttoned his jacket closed, as well. “I _really_ have to go!”

“Fine, fine,” She said, finally stepping back. “But that uniform had better be like that when you get home today!”

“No promises!” Cloud yelled back before shutting the front door behind him so she couldn’t stop him again. He shook his head and turned down the street to begin his walk to school, his fingers hooked around the strap of his bag, which he had casually resting over the back of his shoulder.

His eyes wandered upwards to the sky. He watched as birds flew past, saw a plane in the distance. It wasn’t hot yet, this early in the morning, just the perfect temperature. His thoughts drifted back to the dream; the weather there had been nice as well, as perfect as he was feeling right now, but the steel covered the sky. He felt that pull in his chest, the tightness of before. Why would anyone _want_ to cover the sky?

Cloud felt a buzz in his pants pocket, quickly pulling him out of his thoughts. He looked down as he dug his phone out and looked at the notification on his screen.

Tifa: _can you get me a snack from the conv store?_

He rolled his eyes and quickly sent her a text back.

Cloud: _**Not my problem you overslept again**_

Tifa: _jerk!! I’m gonna remember this next time you need help from me!!_

Cloud snorted a half-laugh and shook his head. He’d known Tifa since they were kids, and even back in elementary school she had a problem staying up too late and sleeping in. Cloud had gifted her with food more times than he could count due to her bad habit of missing breakfast. Cloud used to not indulge her, but her tendency to complain about it to him, and to him specifically, made him cave to her hungry demands.

He shoved his phone back into his pocket and looked up to watch where he was walking. Ahead of him, he saw a girl walking. She was wearing a pink uniform skirt and a white top—strange, since Cloud never saw any students in this area wear anything but the same drab uniform he was sporting. She had wavy brown hair cut to her shoulders, half of it held back with a red ribbon.

As he watched her walk away from him, Cloud’s footsteps stumbled to a stop and he slapped a hand to the side of his head, which suddenly felt like it was about to split open. The scenery in front of him distorted, flashed in and out of sight just like in his dream. He groaned in pain and confusion and shook his head, trying to shake the sudden pain and disorientation.

And then, the street around him disappeared. It was difficult to make sense of what exactly he was seeing, his vision still unclear, but he saw trees. A forest surrounded a path that led to a bright, green light. Things went blurry, flashed white with a particularly painful stab in the center of his skull, and then he saw a girl’s back. Her hair was unbelievably long, pulled up with a pink ribbon and twisted down the length of her back. She was walking away from him, towards that light.

Cloud’s arm lifted and his hand reached out towards her, but she kept growing farther and farther away. He couldn't let her go, he felt himself think without understanding why. He couldn't leave her all alone. He tried calling out to her but his voice stayed silent.

A flash and the forest was gone. Cloud blinked as he looked down the street, his arm still outstretched, and watched as the girl in the pink uniform in front of him turned the corner and disappeared from view without any idea of what was going on behind her. His headache now gone like it had never even happened, Cloud quickly lowered his hand and continued his walk with his head ducked down, hoping no one saw him acting so strangely.

“What the hell?” He murmured to himself as his hand laid flat over his chest. His heart was pounding in his chest almost painfully and for some reason he felt… scared. He shook his head aggressively and sighed. “It’s just the dream… Thinking about it is making me see things.”

“Talking to yourself?”

Cloud jumped when Tifa appeared beside him and knocked into his side. She was breathing a bit heavier than usual and her cheeks were flushed—she'd probably just ran there to make it to school on time, as was another familiar habit of hers. She gave him an incredulous look at his reaction, one brow quirked up. “Did I scare you?” She asked.

Cloud shook his head and lifted his chin to look forward as they walked through the school gates. “Just wasn’t paying attention,” He told her.

She smiled like she didn’t believe him and gestured to his uniform. “Did your mom dress you again?” She asked.

Cloud looked down at his fully buttoned shirt and jacket that he’d forgotten about. “Tch.” He quickly opened his jacket and unbuttoned the first few buttons on his shirt. Every boy they walked past wore an identical uniform, some fully done up with the tie and perfectly polished shoes, some more casual like Cloud. All the girls wore the same as Tifa, a white top tucked into a black skirt, using their accessories to make themselves more unique. Tifa’s individual touch were thigh-high socks.

“Maybe you should listen to her,” Tifa told him as she gestured to one of the more straight-laced boys. “Look more like an upstanding member of society and all that.”

“Not interested,” Cloud said dryly.

Tifa laughed as they walked into the school building and up the stairs to their classroom. They’d been in the same class since elementary school, but…

“Hey Tifa! Over here!” A girl called as soon as they stepped into the room.

Tifa was very popular while Cloud was… not. Tifa was probably one of the only people Cloud considered a friend, but he wasn’t even sure how close they actually were. They’d usually walk to school together if Tifa was quick enough to meet him, sometimes Cloud would help Tifa with her kickboxing training, but other than that, Tifa was almost always with her many other friends. But Cloud was the friend she relied on, the one she called when she needed help. Cloud didn’t mind. He knew she’d be willing to help him too, if he needed it.

“I’m being summoned,” Tifa said with an almost guilty smile. “I’ll see you later?”

“Wait,” Cloud told her as he walked over to his desk. He pulled out a cereal bar from the small box he kept stashed there. “Here.”

“Oh my gosh, you’re the best!” Tifa declared as she took the bar with thanks. “I thought I was gonna starve!”

“You could fix that problem if you’d just wake up a bit earlier,” Cloud told her as he fell into his seat.

“And miss out on all your delicious snacks? I think not,” Tifa replied. “But hey, I’m training after school if you wanna join. Just come by the gym, I’ll probably be there all night. Later!”

And with that, Tifa walked away to join her friends. Cloud watched her go, her long, black hair that she typically kept tied up in a high ponytail swaying against her back. She sat in her desk where her friends were waiting for her and Cloud turned to face the front of the room. Around him, the classroom was loud with the sounds of chatter. Cloud rested his chin on his hand and looked out the window at the sky above.

He was pretty used to being alone. Even as kids, Tifa usually left him to hang out with her other friends. He hated it back then, but he didn’t mind it now. He actually would say he preferred being alone. He had one other friend, Zack, whom he'd met when he started high school, but Zack was a couple of years older than Cloud was and had started university that year in another town, leaving Cloud alone yet again. And he had some classmates in his grade’s other class, Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge, and they were nice, if not a bit overwhelming. Cloud wouldn’t necessarily consider them friends though, more like they were friends with Tifa, and so they felt they were friends with Cloud by association.

Cloud found his thoughts drifting along to the dream he'd had. Those kids, they had liked him. They said they wanted to _be_ like him. And the woman that had asked him to help—people rarely asked him to help out. They’d never say why, but Cloud was fairly certain it was because other people didn’t trust him. They looked at his hair or the way he wore his uniform and assumed he was a delinquent. He knew for a fact anyone that knew him as a kid felt this way; he used to pick fights when he was younger for the littlest reasons.

He’d grown out of that, but that didn’t change anyone’s perception of him. But in the dream he was trusted. Looked up to, even.

“Find something interesting outside, Cloud?”

Cloud blinked and looked up. His homeroom teacher was standing at the front of the room, looking at him in questioning annoyance. That’s when Cloud noticed that the rest of his classmates had quieted down and found their seats. Cloud cleared his throat and shook his head. His teacher nodded and turned to write on the board, and Cloud sunk low in his seat when he heard some snickering around him. He pulled his books from his bag and turned to the page instructed.

He sketched along his notebook absentmindedly as his teacher lectured, his mind still stuck on the dream.

That girl… What was up with her? Cloud was able to see everything else in the dream just fine, as clear as if it were his own memory, but the girl was nothing short of a mystery to him. He couldn’t even see her face, just those big eyes looking at him with a familiarity he didn’t understand and a soft, happy smile. Cloud couldn’t help but wonder who she was, and then get mad at himself for caring so much. He didn’t know anyone in that dream because it _wasn’t real._

He had just stayed up too late playing games the night before. Or maybe he ate something strange. There were so many reasons he could have had a dream like that, and there he was, acting like an idiot and obsessing over it. Why waste his time thinking about it, dwelling on something so unimportant? He’d probably forget all about it in a week, and the weird thing he'd seen on the walk to school. He just needed a good night's rest and things would be back to normal by the morning, he told himself.

“Uh… Cloud?”

Cloud looked up and saw Tifa standing beside his desk. He looked around the classroom, which was now empty. Tifa’s friends lingered by the door, waiting for her.

“Aren’t you gonna come? We have to go to science,” Tifa told him.

“Oh, right,” Cloud said quickly. He was so lost in thought, he hadn’t even realized how much time had passed. He closed his notebook and yanked his science book out. “Let’s go.”

Tifa frowned at him when he stood up. “Are you feeling okay?” She asked. “You’re acting kind of weird today.”

“Just… Didn’t get much sleep,” He said, stepping around her so he could walk out of the room. “Head’s kinda spacey.”

“If you say so…” Tifa murmured as she followed behind.

Her friends stepped out of Cloud’s way and he walked past them without sparing a glance. He heard their whispers when Tifa joined them but ignored them. He didn’t care if anyone thought he was weird or unlikeable. He didn’t need to explain himself to anyone. Even if maybe they had a valid reason for thinking he was weird, like they probably did today.

Cloud paid them no attention as he did every other day and just focused on getting through the rest of his classes. He found himself thinking of green eyes quite a bit before he could stop himself, and it was making paying attention difficult. He was going to have one hell of a time trying to study when he hadn’t heard a word of the lessons. He was happy when the day ended and he could shut his brain off.

“Hey!”

Cloud didn’t turn when he heard Tifa’s voice yell at him as he tried to leave school. She ran in front of him to stop him, her hands on her hips. She was out of her school uniform and now in her workout clothes. Cloud stopped and tilted his head at her, questioning.

“You said you’d come to my practice,” Tifa said.

“I never said that,” Cloud told her.

“Okay, maybe not literally,” Tifa said with a shrug. “But you always come! Come on, I feel like I always do better when you’re there.”

Cloud thought for a moment and then sighed. “Fine. But I’m gonna be doing homework the whole time.”

“Deal!” Tifa exclaimed. “Let’s go!”

She turned to walk in the direction of the school gym and Cloud followed dutifully behind. “So, you sure you’re okay?” Tifa asked as they walked, turning her head a bit to address him. “You were zoning out all day.”

“I told you, I didn’t get much sleep,” Cloud told her again. “I… I had a pretty weird dream.”

“If it’s one of _those_ dreams, I’ll stop you now,” Tifa said.

“Shut up,” Cloud replied, rolling his eyes. “It wasn’t anything bad. It was actually kind of boring… Nothing really happened. It was just super realistic.”

“Hmm…” Tifa hummed in thought, putting a finger to her chin. “I’ve had dreams like that. One of those dreams where it doesn’t really feel like you’re asleep?”

Cloud nodded. “Yeah… Something like that.”

Tifa nodded. "I _hate_ those dreams. I've had ones where I'm just sitting in class. I have to sit in class all day, why do I have to dream about it, too?"

They stepped into the gym and Tifa crossed to the mats laid out under a punching bag. She took off her shoes before stepping up to it and Cloud took a seat on a nearby bench. He wasn’t sure if he should also divulge the detail to her that he had seen things that morning when he was fully awake, but he thought it better to keep that to himself. Tifa was already worried about how he was acting, he didn’t also want to make her worry about him possibly hallucinating.

Lucky for Cloud, the conversation ended without any further questions about it. The gym was soon full of the sounds of Tifa kicking and punching the bag while Cloud flipped through his textbooks, trying to absorb something that he was supposed to learn that day. He flipped open his notebook, hoping that maybe he managed to take some notes while he was zoned out, and then stopped. Sketched across the side of the page, next to his half-assed notes, was a lily.

Cloud blinked down at the flower. He’d drawn that? He hadn’t even realized or noticed.

“Cloud?” He heard Tifa say when the sounds of her exercise paused. He felt a hand tap the top of his head and looked up to see her standing just in front of him. She frowned. “You’re acting weird again. I called your name like, four times.”

“S-Sorry,” Cloud said while shaking his head. He closed the notebook before Tifa could see the lily. “Y'know, maybe I am sick. I should probably go home.”

Tifa frowned. “But—”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Cloud told her as he gathered his things and quickly made his way to the exit. He stopped before he could leave and turned to look at her over his shoulder. “And make sure you get your own breakfast tomorrow.”

Before she could say anything else to him or try to stop him, Cloud pushed open the door to the gym and stepped out. The sun was beginning to slowly set, casting an orange glow and long shadows over Cloud’s path home. He got home in record time and leaned back against his front door once he was inside. He couldn’t hear his mom, which meant he must have gotten home before her.

Cloud climbed the stairs and once in his bedroom, promptly fell onto his bed. He rolled onto his stomach and hid his face in his pillow. He kind of felt bad for worrying Tifa and then bailing—she was right, he _wasn’t_ acting like himself. He just didn’t want the questioning to continue and for the truth to come out. She’d probably think he was crazy. Hell, _he_ was beginning to worry that he was crazy. And all over one. Stupid. Dream. He groaned into his pillow.

Sometime later, he wasn’t sure how long he stayed like that, he heard the front door open and shut and then his mom’s voice calling his name. He sighed and pushed himself up so he could head downstairs and help her with dinner. She was already at the stove when he walked into the kitchen, and she gave him an exasperated smile when she turned to look at him.

“Didn’t I tell you to keep your uniform buttoned?” She asked him. “And why is it all wrinkled?”

Cloud looked down at himself and shrugged. “I lounged in bed when I got home.”

She shook her head and turned back to the stove. “I hope you finished your homework. And please peel the carrots, would you?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Cloud said sarcastically. He stepped up to the counter to start his task. He glanced at his mom as he peeled, thinking. He wondered if he should tell her about the dream and what he had seen during his walk to school but—no. It would probably just make her worry. No reason to concern her over such a little thing. It was stressful enough having Tifa worrying, already.

They finished cooking dinner together and ate in the living room while watching television. Cloud lied and said he had finished his homework while hanging out with Tifa, and the two followed up their show with a movie. He could just finish his homework in the morning before class, he told himself, though he knew deep down that he probably wouldn't get around to finishing it. He just desperately needed the two hours to completely turn his mind off and focus on something other than his own thoughts.

When the movie had finished, Cloud and his mother quickly cleaned up after themselves and headed upstairs to retire to their rooms. “Don’t stay up too late, okay?” His mom told him as she kissed his cheek.

Cloud shook his head. “I’ll probably just go to sleep.”

His mom tilted her head. “Really? That’s not like you. Are you sick?”

She teasingly put the back of her hand against his head and Cloud waved her off. “I’m fine, just tired,” He said. “Night, mom.”

“Good night, Cloud,” She said with a smile. “I love you.”

“Love you, too,” He mumbled before shutting his bedroom door.

He changed out of his wrinkled uniform and into some pajamas and once again fell onto his bed. He laid on his back, spread eagle across the mattress, and stared up at the dark ceiling. Part of him was worried he’d have another strange dream that would leave him feeling odd again tomorrow, but he could only stay awake so long before the pull of sleep drew him in.

With a heavy sigh, Cloud shut his eyes and drifted off.

_“...A flower?”_

_It's his own voice that says it. Everything is disjointed, his vision cutting in and out, hazy and blurred. He can see those emerald eyes again, shimmering under warm street lamps as she steps closer to him. In the midst of his confusion, he can see the yellow lily in her hand with perfect clarity._

_“Lovers used to give these,” She says in her soft, sweet voice. “When they were reunited.”_

_She sticks the stem of the flower into the suspender crossing over his chest, so its petals rest over his heart. He looks down at it, then raises his eyes back to her. He still can’t see her face, not really, but he feels an inexplicable draw to those eyes, like if he looks long enough he will fall right into them._

_He opens his mouth to say something to her, but she disappears right before him, as does everything else until he’s surrounded by darkness._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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	2. lost visions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Cloud's strange dreams continue, he begins to speculate that maybe there's more to it than he originally thought.

_“Wow… Your eyes.”_

_He’s looking into bright green eyes that flick back and forth as they look into his own. It’s nighttime, the scenery dark and the air around them crisp and cool, but even in the dimmed lighting those eyes seem to shine. She's close, leaning closer and closer in a way that has his heart pounding hard against his ribs and yet he still cannot clearly see her face. He turns away from those eyes looking up at him like he is something to be admired and shrugs one shoulder. “It’s the mako. All SOLDIERS have ‘em,” He explains._

_“Yeah… I know,” She says, and her voice is distant, melancholic almost. He wants to fix that but he doesn’t know how. He wants her to be smiling always, but he isn't sure of what to say. There’s a moment of stillness, and then she moves away from him to stand. “Sorry, I’m bumming you out. Let’s go.”_

_He follows after her as he always does. They’re in a park, he sees; there’s a swing set nearby and they’re sitting on top of a slide. He jumps down and lands in front of her distorted figure. She turns to face him and all he can see is her smile._

_"Gotta look forward, not back,” She tells him with a reassuring nod. And then, for one brief moment, he can see her face. Those eyes he's come to know so well, high cheekbones and smiling pink lips, a small nose and flushed cheeks. It lasts only half a second, and then she is turning from him and walking away and the scene around them fades away to black until she’s swallowed up by the darkness, as well._

Cloud slowly blinked his eyes open and stared tiredly up at his ceiling. He was getting rather used to these dreams at this point, so much so that they no longer surprised him awake like they had the first few days. He grew to expect the almost mundane dreams each time he lied down to sleep after nearly a week of experiencing them each night. Well, maybe not _all_ of them were boring. Sometimes, he fought monsters with a sword so huge it seemed like it should be impossible to swing it. That was kind of cool, though strange.

But most of the dreams involved the girl, simply talking with her, running around with her in a place called Midgar, as he'd learned, helping her with random tasks. One night, the entirety of the dream consisted solely of picking flowers with her in a moment so realistic, he could still smell the flowers when he woke up.

Until last night though, Cloud had never been able to get a clear look at her face. It was like his own sight glitched each time he tried, leaving only her impossibly green eyes or her soft smile visible to him. But in this dream, he’d seen her. It had happened so quickly, he wasn’t even sure if he remembering her features correctly, but one thing he felt certain of was that she was a beautiful girl. Possibly the most beautiful he’d ever seen.

Cloud frowned up at the ceiling. Why was he getting worked up over a girl he’d never even met before? He found that he asked this question a lot lately, but as the dreams went on, he began questioning himself and his own memory, wondering if maybe he _had_ met her. Maybe he’d seen her in passing and his subconscious was focusing strongly on her for some reason. Maybe it was all from a movie he'd watched a long time ago or a game he'd forgotten he'd played once. Or maybe, he inevitably wondered after each hyper-realistic dream, he was glimpsing into an alternate universe. A previous life?

Cloud groaned at himself as he pondered and sat up, rubbing his sleepy eyes. He wasn’t living in a movie, he reminded himself. Things like that—multiple lives or parallel universes or whatever kind of afterlife there might be—he never once thought they actually existed. But as he looked down at his hand and could still feel the worn leather glove covering his skin, he wondered if maybe he was wrong about that.

He sat lazily hunched over and glanced at the clock; he had woken up an hour before he needed to. The sun was still rising outside, painting the sky a pale lavender, and Cloud sighed from frustration. He felt exhausted, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep if he tried, so he begrudgingly got out of bed and dragged his feet to the bathroom. He took advantage of the extra time with an extra long shower to clear his head and, after changing into his uniform, headed downstairs.

The kitchen was empty—his mom wasn’t even up yet. He got to work on cooking some eggs for breakfast instead of settling for his typical quick cereal. It wasn’t until he was finishing cooking them and buttering some toast that he heard his mom come downstairs.

“What’s this?” She asked as she looked at the food sat out for the two of them. “You cooked breakfast?”

Cloud shrugged. “I woke up early.”

She took her plate with a grateful smile and sat down at the table with him. “When did you become such a big man?” She asked.

Cloud flushed and ducked his head to begin eating. “They’re just eggs, mom. Not exactly a big deal to cook ‘em.”

She laughed and nodded. “Well, thank you. It’s a nice change.”

Cloud nodded and shoved a bite into his mouth. The two ate together in mostly silence, only interrupted when his mom got up to make a pot of coffee. Cloud’s father had passed away when he was little, so young that he could barely remember anything about him, so it had always just been Cloud and his mom. Cloud liked it that way, if he was being honest. He never really felt like he needed anything more than this simple life with just the two of them.

“I'm gonna go,” Cloud said when he finished eating. He rinsed his plate in the sink and grabbed his bag to leave.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” His mom asked as she sipped at her coffee.

“Uh…” Cloud walked back over to her and gave her a peck on the cheek. He quickly turned and headed for the front door while she was stunned still.

“Hey, you!! I meant your uniform!” She yelled after him as she stood from her seat like she was going to try to catch him before he could escape.

“Already out the door can’t hear you!” Cloud called back as he shut the door behind him. He ran all the way to the street in fear that she would chase after him, but luckily she left it alone. Cloud smiled to himself and turned to begin his walk; the battle of getting him to wear his uniform correctly had been waging since he started high school. Cloud couldn't even be sure if he wore his uniform undone because he wanted to anymore, or because he just really wanted to win the competition.

He was halfway down the street to school when he heard a whistle behind him. “Is that _the_ Cloud Strife I see?!” A girl called.

Cloud stopped when he heard the familiar voice and turned around to find Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge walking down the street towards him. Jessie grinned and jogged the rest of the distance between them. “Uh… Hey,” Cloud said with a nod when she stopped in front of him. Jessie was nice, but she was so outgoing and seemed to have absolutely no fear; she'd say what she wanted and anyone that tried to stop her be damned. Cloud never knew how to act around her.

“Long time no see!” Jessie told him as she flipped her perfectly curled hair over her shoulder. Cloud always wondered how early she must wake up to do her hair and makeup everyday.

“Hey, man!” Biggs said once he had caught up.

“It’s been forever, bro!” Wedge said with a grin and light punch to Cloud’s shoulder.

“Not your bro,” Cloud told him for the hundredth time.

Jessie laughed at the three of them. “Shall we continue on then, boys? Don’t want to be late, after all.”

All three boys nodded, and as a group, they all continued their walk to school. Cloud stayed a step ahead of them; the trio were nice, there was no doubt, and Cloud could appreciate their attempts to include him, but that didn’t change the fact that he still felt a little awkward around them. But, then again, Cloud usually felt kind of awkward around anyone that wasn't his mom or Tifa.

He grunted when a slim arm hooked around his neck and Jessie pressed close against his side. “Cloud, what’s been up with you?” She asked him. "It's been forever since we talked!"

“Just trying to breathe,” Cloud said pointedly as he tried to shrug her arm off of him.

She laughed and released him but didn’t let him escape, instead linking their arms together so she could rest her head against his shoulder for a brief moment as she teased, “Aw, Cloud! I’ve missed you and that sense of humor so much!”

“Give the guy some space, Jessie,” Biggs said from where he and Wedge were walking a few paces behind.

“Um, would you mind? I’m trying to pretend you’re not here,” Jessie replied.

“And I’m pretty sure Cloud is trying to pretend _you’re_ not here,” Biggs retorted. Wedge burst out laughing.

Jessie let go of Cloud so that she could turn around and stick her tongue out at Biggs, but as she did so, she took a painful misstep and her ankle twisted over the uneven sidewalk. Before she could catch herself, she took a hard tumble to the ground with a yelp. 

“Jessie!” Biggs and Wedge both called at the same time.

Cloud knelt in front of her, his eyes scanning for any possible injuries. “You okay?”

Jessie pushed herself onto her hands and whined, "That hurt..."

She lifted her head to look up at Cloud, and everything shifted for a moment. Like Cloud had be transported into an alternate dimension, the sunlight-lit street was suddenly gone and he found himself now high up on a dark tower, felt the bite of metal under his knee where he knelt. He heard explosions and gunshots nearby, could feel the tower shaking unsteadily around him. And in front of him sat Jessie, but _she_ was different, too. Her hair was tied up, a pink band tied around her forehead, and her school uniform was replaced with silver armor plating covering her chest like she was fighting a war.

Her face was covered in soot, her skin scratched and bruised and her eyes glassy, barely able to stay open. She was still smiling as always, weak as it may be, and she took in a rattling breath as her eyes slipped shut and her head fell limp to the side.

Cloud gasped and flinched back from her, but just as quickly as he saw it, the image was gone and Jessie sat before him as normal as ever. She was sitting on the sidewalk, the bright sun reflecting on her shiny brown hair, her skin clean and flawless, her clothes the same as always. Her arched brows were furrowed as she looked at Cloud in confusion and mild worry.

“Uh, Cloud?” She asked with a tilt of her head. “You okay? You’re looking at me funny. It’s not like I have a bone sticking out or something…”

Biggs clapped a hand over Cloud's shoulder, startling him. "Yeah, you okay man? You look like you just saw a ghost."

Cloud swallowed and stood up on shaky legs. “It’s nothing,” He said quickly, but what he had seen lingered in his mind as he looked at her. He turned his eyes away. “Can you walk?”

Jessie took Wedge’s outstretched hand and gingerly tested standing on her twisted ankle. “I think so,” She said as she shifted her weight back and forth. She stepped in front of Cloud, forcing him to look at her. “But if I said no, would you carry me? Because then it hurts like hell!”

Cloud gave her a dry, exasperated look and walked around her. “I think you’re fine,” He said as he continued his commute. 

“Aw man, missed opportunity,” Jessie lamented behind him.

Cloud's breath trembled when he sighed. With the trio no longer able to see his face, he shut his eyes as he tried to steady himself, but he could still see her. Her usually bright eyes dulled, her bright, teasing smile about to fade away. She'd been hurt, badly. No, he thought, it was more than that.

She'd been _dying_ in front of him. Cloud felt sick suddenly as he tried to forget the disturbing vision.

The trio chatted animatedly the entire walk to school, completely unaware of the thoughts and images plaguing Cloud’s mind. Sometimes they tried to get Cloud to join their conversations, but he brushed them off. He didn't have the energy to try and entertain them, not when his hands were still shaking at his sides.

When they finally walked through the school gate and reached the front doors, Jessie grabbed Cloud’s wrist to stop him. “Let’s all eat lunch together today!” She proposed with a gesture to Biggs and Wedge.

“Yeah, that sounds fun!” Wedge said excitedly.

“Uh… Maybe,” Cloud said. He lowered his eyes to keep from looking at her. “No promises.”

Jessie grinned like she had won and let Cloud go to walk into school with a wave to him. Wedge followed behind her, and Biggs paused. “See you later… Maybe,” He told Cloud before disappearing into the school as well.

Cloud sighed and made his way into the school after them. He headed up the stairs and paused before his classroom; his classmates were all talking loudly with one another, laughing and chatting and Cloud felt anxiety and dread build in his gut at the thought of having to get through the rest of the day after what had happened. Without giving it a second thought, he turned from the room and continued climbing the stairs until he reached the door to the roof. It was supposed to be locked, but someone had broken it the previous year and the school never bothered to fix it. Cloud walked to the middle of the roof and dropped his bag unceremoniously on the ground before lowering himself and lying down on his back.

He cushioned his hands behind his head and looked up at the sky. He felt a little bad skipping class—his mom might kill him for it later—but he just didn't think he could focus today if he tried. He’d tried all week, but he couldn’t stop his mind from wandering. And today of all days, after what he saw with Jessie… He felt suffocated just thinking of being stuck in the classroom all day, pretending nothing was wrong.

He pulled his phone from his pocket when he felt it buzz.

Tifa: _where are you???_

Cloud put his phone back in his pocket without answering—he didn't have the energy for that, either. He shut his eyes against the brightness of the sun and tried to keep his mind from wandering, but as usual he was unsuccessful. Seeing Jessie at all, not just at that specific moment, it made things all the more complicated and confusing for him. Before, he'd only dreamt of people he didn't know. Strangers that were familiar with him, but that he swore he'd never met before. Jessie, though... No, he told himself. It didn't mean anything—he'd just put her in someone else's place. It was just a story, something he was making up, it was—

Another life? He thought despite himself. A life with monsters to fight and people to protect, a life where he was a _hero._

And not just him, the people around him, too. If Jessie existed in this alternate place, then did that mean everyone else did? He wondered if Tifa was there, too, and Biggs and Wedge, his other classmates, even. But then, what were the odds of all them being reborn and ending up together again?

And that girl… He hadn’t met her. He had no idea who she was or why she seemed so important out of everything else. He tried once again, as he had tried again and again since the dreams began, to rationalize what he was experiencing, but he couldn’t. Even if he could explain away the dreams, how could he ever make sense of the visions he saw while awake?

As Cloud lay there under the warm sun thinking of all of this, he unintentionally dozed off into a light sleep.

_Laughter, then, “Come on, Cloud. Don’t be so silly.”_

Cloud stirred with a groan when he felt a nudge against his side. He was blinded for a moment by the sun, but then someone leaned over him, blocking it out. His eyes adjusted and he saw Tifa’s face looking down at him. She moved out of the way when he sat up and tilted her head in his direction.

“You’ve been up here all morning?” She asked him, her hands held behind her back.

Cloud grunted in response and pulled his phone out to check the time. Lunch already. He looked back at her. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you,” She said. She tossed something towards him and he reached out to catch it—a wrapped up sandwich. Tifa smiled at him. “Figured you probably wouldn’t come down to get lunch in fear of being caught. And I thought it was about time I repaid you for all the breakfasts.”

Cloud unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite. “You’ll have to give me food everyday until we graduate to repay that.”

“Let’s start small,” Tifa said with a sheepish smile. She strolled over to the edge of the roof and rested her arms on the railing surrounding it. She leaned forward and looked out at the school grounds sprawled out under them. “It’s been a while since we hung out on the roof.”

Cloud got up to join her. He leaned forward and dangled one arm over the edge of the railing lazily and ate his sandwich with the other hand. “Yeah, well. Times change,” He murmured. They used to meet on the roof back in middle school, when Tifa had the time. But that time became more and more sparse as they got older, as did their meetings.

“Yeah…” Tifa said with a small nod. She took a long breath and then looked at Cloud. “You know, Cloud, I…”

But Cloud’s attention got snatched away when he saw a girl walking along the sidewalk outside the school. He couldn’t see her face from here, but her pink skirt and the bow pinned in her hair made her stand out. He watched her with wide eyes as she walked down the street with a skip in her step, sipping at an iced drink. 

“Cloud?” Tifa asked. She followed his entranced gaze towards the girl.

Cloud didn't even hear Tifa. His eyes were stuck on the girl for a reason he didn't understand and he couldn't bring himself to look away. He didn’t know the girl, but deep in his gut, he felt an urge to run out of the school and stop her before she got too far. He narrowed his eyes like he could see her clearly if he squinted hard enough, and then his sight went blurry. Then, was she...?

He heard a girl’s voice laugh in his ear, but it wasn’t Tifa. 

_“Cloud? Is something wrong?”_

Cloud’s head throbbed and he gasped in pain. He put a hand to his temple, shut his eyes and groaned as he shook his head like he could force the ache away. He felt leather covering his hands, the weight of a sword at his back, smelled flowers like he was in the middle of a field.

“Cloud? What’s wrong?”

Tifa’s hand on his shoulder snapped him out of it. His eyes opened wide and, in surprise, he dropped his sandwich. Tifa watched it fall pathetically to the ground below but Cloud didn’t spare it a glance, instead scanning the area around the school for the girl in the pink skirt. She was already gone, though.

Tifa watched, biting her lower lip, as Cloud sighed and leaned heavily against the railing, so now both of his arms dangled over it. He didn’t even have the energy to keep his head raised. Tifa cleared her throat and turned around so she could lean back against the railing with her hands crossed over her chest. She regarded Cloud for a long moment, and then looked down at her shoes.

“Do you… know that girl?” Tifa asked hesitantly.

Cloud shook his head. No, he _didn’t_ know her. That only made the way his heart was racing even more pitiful. Tifa's eyes glanced at him, obviously waiting for more of an explanation for his odd behavior. “Her uniform is weird,” He mumbled.

It didn’t seem like Tifa believed Cloud, with the way she was looking at him, but perhaps she pitied him or knew he didn’t want to talk about it because she didn't question him further. “Maybe she’s not a student,” She said instead with a shrug.

But she was one, Cloud thought. He’d seen her wear the same school uniform the other day, after his first dream. And although he hadn't seen her face either time, he _knew_ it was the same girl. He decided not to tell Tifa this, though.

Tifa bit her lower lip. “...Jessie told me you were acting weird this morning,” She said after a moment. “Is that why you ditched? Is something wrong?”

“Jessie thinks everything I do is weird,” Cloud murmured with a bitter edge to his voice he didn't intend.

“Come on, Cloud,” Tifa said, frowning now. “It’s not just today. You’ve been acting off all week. What’s going on?”

Cloud sighed and tilted his head back to look up at the sky. There were some clouds creeping slowly far off. He wondered if it would rain. Slowly, he asked, “Do you think there are, like… alternate universes? Or that people are reborn? Or… Something?”

“Uh… Huh?” Tifa blinked her warm, brown eyes at him. She twirled the ends of her hair between her fingers, a nervous habit she’d had for as long as Cloud had known her. “Um... Where’s that coming from?”

Cloud shrugged. “Just been thinking about it lately,” He admitted to her. "I've been getting uh... Deja-vu a lot. Made me wonder."

Tifa hummed in thought. “It’s kind of a heavy question…” She said after a minute. “I guess I never really thought about it before but… It’s a nice idea.”

Cloud glanced at her. “Why do you think so?”

“It’s just… Life’s kind of short, you know? We can’t do everything we want to. But if we’re reborn, maybe we can have the time to try,” She shrugged and looked back at him, smiling shyly. “Like… Maybe there’s another life where we can get everything we want.”

Cloud mulled over her words for a moment and nodded. “Yeah… Maybe,” He said quietly. He thought of green eyes that shimmered like gems.

The school bell rang out across the campus and below them, other students moaned and groaned as they got themselves back to their classrooms. Cloud watched as they avoided his ruined sandwich splattered on the ground. Tifa sighed and pushed herself from the railing. “Time to go,” She said. “You’re gonna stay here?”

Cloud nodded. “I don’t wanna deal with an interrogation right now.”

“‘Kay,” Tifa replied. “Well I’ll… I’ll see you later, Cloud.”

Cloud offered her a little wave over his shoulder as she walked away from him and to the roof door. He stepped back from the railing of the roof, just in case any teachers were looking for late students and happened to catch sight of him. He figured he’d wait a bit and then see if he could make a quick escape. He didn’t want to sit on the roof for another few hours and besides… he was getting hungry.

Cloud waited about an hour until the coast was clear and there were no teachers or students outside and quickly made his way down the stairs. Luck was on his side as he snuck around the school to the back entrance and slipped through the gate. He looked left and right to ensure no one was around to catch him sneaking away, then turned to walk along the sidewalk.

He stopped in a store to buy a bottled drink and another sandwich with what little change he had on him and walked to a park a few blocks down to waste away the afternoon. He settled himself under the shade of a tree and took a sip of his drink. 

_"Like… Maybe there’s another life where we can get everything we want.”_

Cloud mulled over Tifa’s words while watching little kids have fun on the playground while their mothers watched nearby. He couldn’t think of much he wanted. He supposed he wanted to be happy, to have an easy life with as little stress as possible. But other than that… He couldn’t think of a goal he had, a wish to fulfill. He didn’t know what he was missing in this life that he could potentially gain in another.

He wondered if there was something Tifa wanted, if there was a different life she wanted to live where she could have what she couldn’t obtain here. Jessie, Biggs, or Wedge, was there something that made them want to be reborn, as well? He thought of that vision of Jessie again, the one that shook him to his core like it was haunting him. Perhaps this was her second chance after dying so young, he thought morbidly.

So, he contemplated as he ate his sandwich, the dreams and visions he’d been having... They were memories from another life, he theorized. He wasn’t sure if he entirely believed it yet—he wasn’t sure if he _wanted_ to believe it. But with each new glimpse he got, it became the only theory he could even attempt to make sense of. For now, he’d run with it until he could find another explanation. He wondered about his other self, the one that fought monsters and followed a pretty girl around like an obedient guard dog. He wondered if maybe that version also had something he desperately wanted to achieve but couldn’t in his lifetime, if there were any regrets he carried that he would fix if given a second chance.

He heard static in his ears, drowning out the sounds of the park. 

_“I never blamed you. Not even once.”_

Cloud shut his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t know… What that means,” He whispered, like the sweet voice echoing in his mind could hear him. _Show me more,_ he wanted to ask. _Explain it to me. Please._

“Uh…”

The white noise faded and Cloud lifted his eyes. There was a kid standing nearby, looking at Cloud nervously. Cloud raised a brow at the kid, but then noticed a ball by his side. He picked it up and tossed it back, and the child picked it up and ran away as fast as they could. Cloud watched them go and sighed to himself with a shake of his head.

Great, he thought. It wouldn’t be long until _everyone_ thought he was going mad.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and his stomach dropped when he saw that his mom was calling. He let it ring one more time and then slowly pressed the answer button. “Hel—”

“Where are you?” His mother asked angrily. “Your teacher called and said you weren’t at school.”

“I’m—”

“Come home. Right now,” His mother interrupted before hanging up.

Cloud sighed and stood up. He couldn’t avoid it forever, so he slowly dragged his feet home to face the music. When he arrived home, his mother was vigorously scrubbing at the countertop in the kitchen, but she stopped when she heard the door and fixed him with a look that made Cloud gulp. He reluctantly shut the door behind him and walked towards her.

“What were you thinking, cutting class?” She asked him with her arms crossed over her chest. “You even left early this morning!”

“I-I’m sorry,” Cloud said sheepishly, unable to meet her eyes. “I just… wasn’t feeling well.”

“Then you should have told me,” She told him with a deep frown. “You can’t just ditch class, that doesn’t help anyone. Especially not yourself.”

Cloud nodded. “...Sorry,” He said again.

His mom sighed and shook her head. She turned her back to him and began spraying more cleaner along the counter. “Just… Go upstairs. I’ll call you when dinner is done.”

Cloud promptly turned around and walked out of the kitchen to head up the stairs. His mother was never one for strict punishments, not even when he used to get into fights when he was younger, but that was probably because she knew the guilt he felt over disappointing her was punishment enough. After all the times he’d gotten into trouble as a kid and all the stress he put her through, he now felt even more bad when he upset her.

Cloud sat in his desk chair and texted Tifa for their homework assignment. He worked on that—or rather, stared at the page while spinning his pencil in his hand—until his mother called him down to eat. They ate in mostly silence and when they were finished, Cloud volunteered to clean up for the both of them. He retired back to his room when he was done with the excuse that he needed to finish his homework, but his mom wouldn’t let him go without giving him a hug and a kiss to his cheek.

Cloud returned to his desk to finish his assignments. He flipped through his notebook to find the notes he needed, but he stopped when something caught his eye—the lily he’d drawn after his first dream.

 _“Lovers used to give these,”_ She had said in the dream while handing him a yellow lily, exactly the same as the one he’d sketched.

“Lover…” Cloud murmured to himself as he looked at the drawing. Maybe that’s why he was always with her in his dreams. They were… together?

Cloud had never fallen in love before. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t have a slight crush on Tifa when they were kids, but that faded as they grew up. He didn’t care about dating or relationships—sometimes he thought he’d never fall in love and honestly, he didn’t care much. He was used to being alone.

But when he thought of that girl, he felt… strange. Nervous, almost, with the way she’d make his heart stutter in his chest. He'd never felt that way before.

Cloud shook his head. Even if he was seeing another life, even if he _had_ loved that girl, that meant nothing now. That wasn't his life, not anymore. And he wasn’t living in a fairytale with soulmates and destiny—he was just trying to get through high school. He couldn’t be in love with someone he never met, he told himself, no matter how strong those feelings seemed.

Cloud turned the page on the lily and rested his cheek in his palm to continue his assignments until he went to sleep.

_He sees the sky above him, through a hole in an old wooden roof. He's dazed, confused, unsure of where he is or how he got there. He sits up and tries to look around, and there is her face. She's leaning close to him, looks at him in concern, though her lips keep their everlasting smile._

_“Are you okay?” She asks him._

_He leans away from her and stands in surprise. He blinks and looks away from her to check their surroundings. “Where am I?”_

_“An old church in the Sector 5 slums,” She responds. She points to the roof, where the hole is spilling sunshine over them. “Fell right into my flowerbed, lucky for you.”_

_He looks down and sees that he’s standing in a small patch of yellow lilies. He stumbles to get away from them and gives a stammering, “S-Sorry, I didn’t mean to—”_

_“It’s okay!” She reassures him. “They’re really tough, you know.”_

_He looks back at her. Though it's blurred around the edges, he can see her pretty face clearer now. She tilts her head at him, the soft brown hair framing her face spilling over her shoulder. He blinks at her curiously. “You’re…?”_

_She smiles at him and opens her mouth to speak. He can see her lips move, but her voice is drowned out by a sudden ringing in his ears. She says her name twice, but her voice goes unheard. He wants to ask her to repeat herself, but she tilts her head at him before he can and asks, “And you are?”_

_He nods at her. “Cloud.”_

_She grins as bright as the sun and the lilies surrounding them. The air around them is sweet from the flowers._

_“Nice to meet you again, Cloud.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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	3. second meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Cloud tries to balance his real life with the dreams he's been having, he happens to meet into someone he feels he's known for longer than a lifetime.

_He feels heat before he can see anything, so blazing he thinks he must be trapped in the pits of hell. He hears screaming in the distance and the sounds of buildings crumbling. His hand curls into a fist over hot earth and he tries to pull himself forward, but he feels weak, paralyzed, unable to do anything but lie there helplessly. He finds the strength to lift his head and opens his eyes against stinging smoke that suffocates him. The fire blazing in front of him is so bright he can hardly look at it and his vision blurs around the edges._

_He reaches his hand towards the home set ablaze before him. “Mo...m…” He tries to speak, but the smoke is so thick, it feels like he’s being burned from the inside out, just like the house he is forced to watch fall._

_“Mom…” He rasps as he pulls himself forward an inch and reaches out again. He needs to save her. She can’t die. He can’t lose her. He’s supposed to protect her, to be the hero…_

_He takes a rattling breath as his vision grows dark and his head gets light. “Mom… M…om…” He whispers one last time. His hand falls to the scorched dirt and his eyes close against his will._

“Cloud, wake up!”

Cloud gasped when he felt hands grasp his shoulders and he sat up so quickly, his head almost collided with his mother’s. Upon seeing her, Cloud felt something crack in his chest, guilt and fear wrapping around his heart until it’s strangled under the weight. He grabbed her by the arms and held her tightly like he was afraid she would disappear before his eyes if he let her go.

“Mom!” He cried desperately, manic and absolutely terrified. “Are you okay?!”

“O-Of course I am,” His mom said as she looked at her son in concern and confusion. She could probably feel the way his hands trembled as he held her and the frantic look in his eyes, so she put her hands on her son’s cheeks and fixed him with a hard look. “Cloud, sweetie. I’m _okay._ ”

Her hands felt like a comforting anchor against his cheeks, the gentle touch grounding him to that moment with her. “Y-You are?” He asked timidly. His voice shook and he felt like a child, but he didn’t care. He needed to know. He needed to be sure.

“Yes, I am,” She told him with a reassuring smile. “Honey… Did you have a nightmare? You were yelling in your sleep.”

Cloud took shuddering breaths and looked around. Right, he was in his room. And his mother was in front of him, safe. There were no flames, no screams. It was only a dream, he thought to himself repeatedly like a manta, but he could still smell the burning ozone, still taste the smoke that choked him and feel the heat on his face and his stinging eyes as he tried to look into that blinding fire, unable to save her.

He pulled his shaking hands away from her and shook his head. “Y-Yeah… Just a nightmare,” He said quietly. “Sorry...”

He kept his eyes down, but he could feel the way she was looking at him and practically hear the frown in her voice when she spoke. “Are you sure that’s all it was, Cloud?” She asked him while running a hand comfortingly over the top of his head. “You’ve been acting a little strange lately. You said you weren’t feeling well on Friday… Is there something going on?”

Cloud swallowed, his throat tight and dry. He considered telling her for a moment, letting her know of the dreams and the visions and the fact that they were so clear, he truly feared that she was dead, but thought against it while shaking his head. It would only bring her more worry to know. “No,” He lied quickly. “Nothing.”

“Then, do you want to stay home today?” She asked, obviously not believing him but thankfully not pressing more. “I’d rather you tell me then ditch school again. It’s okay, sweetie. If you’re feeling sick, you can—”

“No, I’m okay,” Cloud said as he stood up, forcing her to take a step back. At the uneasy look in her eyes, the same bright blue as his own, Cloud nodded at her. “Really.”

“If you say so... But call me if you need anything, okay?” She told him. “I can pick you up if you want to go home.”

“Yeah, I will,” He said, his voice raspy and quiet. “Um… I’m gonna go take a shower.”

She nodded, and he didn’t move away when she gave him a kiss on the cheek. He offered her a small smile to quell her doubts and then moved past her to head to the bathroom. He stripped out of his pajamas, yanked the faucet on and stepped under the stream of hot water and allowed himself a few minutes to let the heat seep into his skin and relax his muscles. He sighed and bowed his head numbly, water falling over his hair and down the back of his neck.

It wasn’t real, he reminded himself. Or… Maybe it was, in some other reality, but right here and now, it was nothing more than a nightmare. His mother was safe, she was alive, their house was still standing. There was no reason to dwell on something he had never experienced—something he _would_ never experience.

But his eyes still stung from the heat and smoke and his chest hurt like his lungs were begging for oxygen. He could still feel the pain and fear of losing her like a knife was stuck through his heart and down to his very soul, the guilt over not being able to save her from such a horrifying fate making his eyes burn and his hands shake. He shook his head and grabbed the wash to clean his body. He scrubbed at his skin like he was trying to get the stench of the smoke he could still smell off of it, shampooed his hair three times even though he knew it was all in his head. 

He finished his shower and quickly got dressed for school. He glanced at himself in the mirror as he left his room; there were dark circles hanging under his eyes and frankly, he looked absolutely miserable. It was going to be a _long_ day, but he didn’t want to worry his mother even more and stay home after his impromptu ditch day. He sighed and grabbed his bag to head downstairs.

“You want me to make you anything?” His mom asked as soon as he got off the last step. 

Cloud shook his head from the bottom of the stairs. “I’m not very hungry.” His stomach still felt twisted and he felt vaguely nauseous from anxiety. He worried he’d be sick if he tried to eat now.

His mother frowned but nodded without trying to convince him to eat. “Okay then, I’ll see you when I get home. Make sure you eat a big lunch. And call me if you need _anything_.”

He nodded at her and opened the front door. “Thanks, mom.” He paused before leaving. “...Love you.”

“I love you too, Cloud,” She said from behind him

Cloud nodded and then walked outside and down the small path leading to the street. His steps slowed when he looked up and saw Tifa waiting on the sidewalk, leaning against a light pole in front of his house. She smiled at him when he noticed her and pushed herself off the pole to step up to him. “Good morning,” She said. Her lips pressed into a tight frown when she got a better look at him and she tilted her head towards him. “Um… Are you okay?”

“...What are you doing here?” Cloud asked her instead of answering her question, raising his brow.

“Oh, well… I thought we could walk to school together,” Tifa told him.

Cloud’s eyes drifted away as he thought for a moment. This was odd—Tifa had never purposefully met him to make the walk to school together before, not since elementary school at least. They’d usually just happen to bump into each other and finish the walk together if she managed to get up early enough. But, weird as it was, it’s not like he’d reject her. He eventually nodded and turned to walk down the street. “It’s early for you,” He said as she fell into step beside him.

“Yeah, but I figured it was time for a change, y’know?” Tifa told him. “Oh, and here.”

She dug through her bag and pulled out a cereal bar to hand to him. Cloud took it and frowned at it incredulously. “Um… What’s this for?”

“You said I’d have to give you food everyday until we graduate to pay you back,” Tifa said. “So I’m starting now.”

Cloud huffed out a small laugh with a shake of his head and shoved the bar into his bag. “I was just kidding. You don’t have to do that.”

“I knew you’d say that, but…” She looked at him, biting her lower lip in nervousness. “Cloud… Can I be honest with you?”

Cloud nodded. “Of course.”

“I’m kind of worried about you,” Tifa admitted to him. “You’ve been acting off lately, and you’ve been so out of it. Are you sure there isn’t—”

“I’m fine,” Cloud interrupted with a harsh edge to his voice.

“Are you _really,_ though?” Tifa pressed.

“I’m…” Cloud thought of the nightmare, of green eyes and a pretty smile that almost seemed to be haunting him, of strange dreams ranging from languid moments of doing nothing to terrors that left him in fear and shock. He shook his head. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind. Nothing you need to worry about.”

Tifa looked down at her feet as they walked. “Does it… Have anything to do with what we talked about on Friday? On the roof? It seemed like it was bothering you...”

“That was...” Cloud looked away as he thought of their conversation and the ideas he'd shared with her. “I didn’t mean anything by it, I was just… Overthinking. It’s not that serious. It’s not like any of that stuff is real, anyway.”

Tifa came to a halt abruptly. Cloud slowed to a stop as well and turned back to look at her. She was still looking at the ground, her hands curled into tight fists at her side. “Sorry… I shouldn’t pry. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. But…” She raised her head to look at him. She was frowning, concern swimming deep in her brown, wistful warm eyes. “You know you can always talk to me, right?”

Cloud’s eyes widened at her sudden soft, sorrowful tone. He blinked, and it was like a switch was flipped. The world around them was no longer bright with morning sun, but dark as night with only the pale light of the moon illuminating the space between them. The street was gone, replaced instead with a garden of yellow flowers—lilies. 

Tifa still stood in front of him but she had changed. She looked older, her school uniform was replaced with a cropped white tank-top and a short black skirt, and she wore armored gloves on her hands. Her usually pulled back hair was down, the breeze picking up stray strands that fell in front of her eyes that were shimmering with tears and stuck to her wet cheeks.

“What’s wrong?” Cloud asked immediately, taking a step towards her. He blinked and things were back to normal; the sunlight was bright, birds sang overhead, there were no flowers, and Tifa looked like the girl Cloud had known his entire life.

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at him. “W-What do you mean?” She asked. “I just said I was worried about you…”

“But you were just—” Cloud cut himself off and swallowed. No, he reminded himself, she _wasn’t_ crying. Maybe somewhere else, some other dimension or time, she was. But not now. Cloud shook his head and turned away from her. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to worry you. Let’s just go.”

He heard her footsteps and then she was in front of him again, frowning, looking frustrated or like she wanted to yell. She gestured towards him. “This is what I mean! You keep acting so—” Tifa cut herself off and sunk her teeth into her lower lip. She shook her head and turned around. “Nevermind. You’re right, we should go.”

She walked ahead of him with her head down. Cloud stared at her back for a moment, stunned into stillness at her outburst. He frowned and eventually dragged his feet to follow behind her. Today was by far the strangest day he’d had since everything began; his stomach was still in knots from his nightmare, and now his mind was spinning from everything with Tifa.

Cloud thought of what he’d seen—why was she crying? He wondered if it was his fault, if he’d done something to upset her. He hadn’t seen Tifa cry since they were kids, when she scraped her knees falling off her bike. The image was unsettling; only something truly dire could make Tifa cry like that. It was unsettling, and Cloud never wanted to see her cry again. Not in this lifetime, not if he could help it.

But, with how things were going and how upset Tifa seemed… Maybe he was going to fail at that.

Tifa didn’t speak until they reached their classroom. She slowed so that she could walk beside him, melting the cold shoulder she was giving him. “Cloud… Can I ask you something?” She asked quietly.

Cloud nodded slowly. “Of course you can.”

Tifa opened her mouth to speak as they stepped into the classroom, but her eyes drifted around the room and the other students surrounding them. She swallowed and shook her head. “N-Nevermind. I’m gonna—”

“Tifa,” Cloud said, frowning. “What is it?”

“It’s nothing. Not important, it can wait.” Tifa insisted. “B-But anyway, I’m training in the gym after school. Do you want to come?”

“Uh… I might,” He told her. “I’ll see how I’m feeling. I kind of have a headache.”

“Oh, okay,” Tifa said, and although she smiled, he could hear the disappointment in her voice. “Then… I’ll see you later.”

And with that, she walked past him and to the usual friends waiting for her. Cloud sighed and walked to his desk to collapse heavily in his chair. The day had barely begun and he already felt exhausted. Wherever these visions and dreams were coming from, whatever they were, the life seemed miserable, and it was making him feel miserable. It could be nothing but dreadful if it led to Tifa crying, and his mom… Even Jessie met a bitter end. He wondered how awful it was for that version of himself. How hard of a time did he have? Well, his mom apparently died in a fire, and his friends were sad or also dead. It couldn’t be that great of a life.

But, then again, for how absolutely harrowing that life seemed, there did seem to be one good thing; that unknown girl. Any time he dreamt of her, it was good. Times spent with her were simple, easy. He felt comfortable and open with her, if not a bit nervous out of a want to impress her. He mulled over the many dreams he’d had of her and found himself wanting to know how their lives turned out, if they were able to spend many years together as happy as that difficult world allowed them to be. Or maybe it ended badly for them, too. Maybe that entire life was a tragedy for everyone.

“Hmm... How depressing,” He mumbled to himself, his voice getting drowned out from the sounds of the classroom.

He tried his best not to focus on that as the day went on and classes began. He forced himself to take notes as his teachers lectured and pinched himself if his thoughts drifted. His mom was worrying, Tifa was worrying, and he knew he needed to get back on track before it got worse and they grew even more upset. What happened in a life that wasn’t his didn’t matter, after all. It didn’t matter how real it felt, if it was real at all or if he was actually just losing his mind. To him, it was nothing more than a story playing in his mind.

That’s what he told himself, anyway, as he caught himself sketching another lily.

By the end of the day, Cloud’s head was throbbing dully like the act of focusing in class overworked his brain. He felt pathetic as he crossed the school campus towards the gate. He’d apologize to Tifa tomorrow and join her for her practice the next time she asked.

“Hey, Cloud!” He heard behind him.

Or… Maybe not. 

He turned to look over his shoulder. Tifa was watching him with her hands on her hips. “So you’re… Going home?” She asked him, frowning.

He nodded. “Yeah. See you later,” He told her as he turned to continue walking.

“Hey, wait!” She called after him. He didn’t have the energy to entertain her though, so he didn’t acknowledge her. If he did, he knew she’d use it as leverage to try and convince him to join her. “Cloud, are you ignoring me?”

The headache spiked and Cloud flinched. If Tifa said anything else, he couldn’t hear her over the ringing in his ears. He shook his head and continued walking towards the gate, but the feeling only grew, until Cloud was squinting to keep his eyes open against the pain and disorientation.

 _“Is Tifa like… Your girlfriend?”_ A light voice asked in his head.

“No,” He groaned, though he knew no one was actually asking. He shut his eyes and put a hand to his aching head as he walked through the gate and turned the corner.

He stumbled a few steps down the sidewalk and promptly slammed _hard_ into another body.

“Oh no, the flowers—!” A girl cried.

Cloud blinked his eyes open, and the pain was suddenly gone.

Flowers that had been knocked into the air fell over them like rain and through their petals, like the world had shifted to slow motion, Cloud saw her. He thought, as he tried to get a good look at her through the flowers and his own blurred sight, he could see long brown hair, tied up and twisted down the length of her back, then a pretty pink dress with a red jacket and an accompanying flower necklace hanging down her slim neck. But then her eyes met Cloud’s, his vision cleared and the girl’s appearance changed, though those beautiful green eyes that Cloud was already so familiar with stayed the same.

This girl, this version of her, her hair was shorter, wavy and cut to her shoulders, half of it pulled back and her fringe falling slightly over her big eyes. Her cheeks were rounder with youth, though her lips looked the same and were slightly shiny like she was wearing gloss. Her dress and jacket were gone and instead she wore a white button-up top tucked into a pink uniform skirt.

The uniform, Cloud realized as his brain clunked back into motion. The strange pink uniform—it was her! The girl he’d seen walking the day after his first dream, the one he felt pulled to on the roof, it was the girl he’d been dreaming about. He felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner. No wonder he felt that inexplicable draw to her, he realized. She was the girl from his dreams, the girl he felt like he already knew though they’d never met. She’d been in front of him the whole time, and now he finally found her.

And that meant… was it all real? He wasn’t losing his mind, making up stories in his head of himself and his friends—he’d dreamt of a real person though he’d never seen her before. He didn’t know how or why, but he felt certain that, _somehow_ , his dreams and visions were so much more than that—they were memories, just as he'd theorized. Memories of another life, a life surrounded by the same people and this girl he’d met like it was destiny. 

“You’re…” Cloud breathed. He clamped his mouth shut before he could say something that would freak her out— _she_ didn’t know him, after all. He instead lowered his eyes, his heart pounding in his chest from those impressive eyes looking at him, and saw the ruined flowers at their feet. He stepped back from them. “S-Sorry! I-I didn’t mean—”

The girl laughed and shook her head with a hand stretched out to stop him. “It’s okay! Don’t worry about it,” She said as she knelt down to pick them up. Cloud felt an odd sense of deja-vu. “I should have watched where I was going.”

Cloud knelt in front of her to help, and she looked at him like she was surprised he’d do such a thing. He met her eyes for a brief moment, then immediately returned his attention back to the flowers and tried to remind himself to breathe. He shook his head. “I was the one not paying attention,” He said quietly.

“Guess we’re both clumsy, then!” She leaned towards him a bit. He looked up, startled, and she smiled when she had his attention back on her. “I’m Aerith, by the way. Aerith Gainsborough.”

Cloud watched her lips as they spoke—they moved the same over her name as they did when she introduced herself in his dream. And although Cloud hadn’t been able to hear her say it then, for some reason, he felt like he already knew. “Cloud,” He replied stiffly. “Strife. Um. Me. I-I’m Cloud Strife.”

Aerith giggled behind her hand and nodded. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Cloud Strife.”

Cloud tried to ignore the way his heart stuttered in his chest when she said his name. He cleared his throat and kept his eyes pointedly on the flowers scattered on the ground. His classmates walked past without even seeming to notice the mess. “I’ve—uh—I’ve seen you around,” Cloud said after a moment of quietness between them.

“Oh _have_ you?” Aerith asked in a teasing voice.

“B-Because of your uniform,” Cloud explained quickly with a gesture to her skirt. “It’s not really common around here. It kind of… sticks out.”

“Ah, right,” Aerith said with a nod. “I live around here, but I go to CAA.”

Cloud blinked and looked up at her. “That private arts academy?”

Aerith smiled at him. “That’s the one! They’re a lot brighter with their colors over there.”

Cloud hummed in thought and picked up another flower. He hoped it wasn’t obvious that he was purposefully picking them up slowly, and he hoped he wasn’t reading too much into the fact that Aerith seemed to be moving slowly as well. “So, you’re an artist?” He asked.

“Yep,” Aerith replied. “I paint!”

“Wow,” Cloud breathed. He cleared his throat in an attempt to not sound too starstruck. “And you’re a… flower delivery girl?”

Aerith laughed and Cloud found himself already addicted to the sound and the sight of her smile, bright and bubbly and reminiscent of the sunrise. “Kind of,” She told him. “I grow these in my garden. I like to donate them to the orphanage, or the elderly home. That’s where I was just headed, actually.”

Cloud picked up a drooping, ruined flower and frowned. “Sorry,” He said again. “I messed up your plans.”

“I told you, don’t worry about it,” Aerith said, waving her hand flippantly in front of her. She raised her eyes to him and smiled. “But, if you can’t help but worry, you could always help me pick some more. My house is really close by, you know.”

Cloud’s eyes blinked up at her in surprise. He cleared his throat after a heartbeat and nodded at the opportunity to spend more time with her. “Uh… Sure, I-I guess.”

Aerith’s smile brightened. “Really?! You will?” She asked hopefully. It seemed she didn't expect him to agree to her proposition.

“Y-Yeah,” Cloud replied, this time unable to look away from her. He’d say yes to whatever she wanted if it meant she’d keep smiling at him like that. “I mean… It was my fault. And it’s not like I have anything else going on.”

“Great!” Aerith picked up the last flower and jumped to her feet. Cloud stood with her and she pointed behind her. “My house is just this way, let’s go now!”

Aerith began walking down the sidewalk without wasting another second, and Cloud followed just a step behind. “Hey,” He said after a moment. “One of the times I saw you, you were walking around here during school. Did you have a day off or something?”

Aerith looked at him over her shoulder. “My school lets the upperclassmen leave during lunch. You probably saw me when I was getting a snack!”

“Upper class, huh?” Cloud asked. “What grade are you?”

“Third year,” Aerith said, holding three fingers up. “Almost done! And you?”

“Uh… Second year,” Cloud told her. She seemed so exuberant and youthful, yet she was older than him.

“Wow!” Aerith said, turning around to walk backwards so she could look at Cloud with her hands clasped behind her back. “I would have guessed you were the same as me!”

The corner of Cloud’s lips quirked up in a half-smile. “Guess I look old, then.”

Aerith laughed and shook her head. “I didn’t say that!”

Just then, a bicyclist turned the corner and came speeding towards. “Watch out,” Cloud said as he grabbed Aerith’s arm.

She made a small noise of surprise as Cloud yanked her out of the cyclist’s path and she fell against his chest. They stayed like that for a long moment and Cloud's throat went tight, though he didn't necessarily want the moment to end, even if meant he could breathe again. She blinked and looked up at him, making no move to pull away. She smiled. “You have good reflexes.”

Cloud swallowed, his face suddenly feeling hot, and he turned his head away. “N-Not really...”

Aerith laughed and stepped back from him so he could breathe. “Come on, my house is just down this way.” She led him down the street the cyclist had turned from and the two walked for a few more minutes before Aerith stopped in front of a gate and gestured to it. “Here we are!”

She pushed the gate open and as she and Cloud stepped through it, he was met with a rainbow of flowers planted all over the front yard. “W-Wow,” Cloud said as he looked around. Some patches were empty and some flowers hadn’t bloomed yet, but Cloud was sure he’d never seen this many flowers in his life. Except, of course, in his dreams of her. “You… Really love flowers.” Strange, he thought, how that detail carried over across lifetimes.

"That's right, I do!" Aerith laughed and took the ruined flowers Cloud was holding, then walked towards her front door to put them down. She grabbed a couple of baskets sitting there and came back to Cloud. “Here, you use this one! Pick whatever flowers you want!”

Cloud put his schoolbag down by the gate and took the basket from her. He looked around the expansive garden; there were a lot of flowers to choose from, most of which he didn’t know the names of, but a certain one caught his eye—a little patch of yellow lilies. He walked over and knelt before them. Aerith followed and squatted beside him, smiling.

“Do you like these ones? They’re my babies,” She said as she picked one to hold out to him. “You know, all flowers have their own language. This is the flower lovers used to give—”

“When they were reunited,” Cloud finished with a nod as he took the flower from her and looked at it in curiosity.

“Huh?” Aerith blinked her big, evergreen eyes and leaned closer to him. “Cloud! Are you secretly a florist or something?”

Cloud shook his head quickly and dropped the lily into his basket. “N-No, I just—heard it somewhere before,” He told her stiffly. 

And it was _her_ that he’d heard it from, in one of his dreams when she’d offered it to him the same as she had just done. Cloud kept that to himself, though.

Aerith’s eyes narrowed in speculation as she regarded Cloud, like she didn’t believe him or something, but she didn’t say anything else about it. She turned back to the flowers and gestured to them. “Well, pick as many as you like!” She told him cheerfully.

Cloud nodded, and the two began picking their flowers. Aerith moved around the garden, picking different flowers that would compliment the lilies Cloud stuck to. She hummed a small tune she seemed to be making up as they worked and Cloud thought of another one of the dreams he’d had, where they’d picked flowers just like this. It was peaceful, sitting in the sweet smelling air, doing something he never thought he’d do but that he oddly found great enjoyment in. He realized that, in the quiet time spent with her, he was able to turn his overthinking mind off and focus just on the sight of the flowers and the sound of Aerith’s little song.

It was around the time their baskets were full that the gate opened and an older woman stepped through. Aerith stood up to greet her. “Hey honey,” The woman said. “Did you deliver the flowers to the—”

The woman stopped talking when she saw Cloud and, not wanting to be rude, he stood up to face her, standing just behind Aerith’s shoulder. Aerith smiled at Cloud and stepped to the side, so she could gesture to the two of them. “Cloud, this is my mom, Elmyra,” She told him. “And mom, this is Cloud! He’s helping me pick flowers.”

“Uh… Hi,” Cloud said with a small bow of his head.

“Nice to meet you.” Elmyra nodded at him and then looked at Aerith. “What happened to the ones you picked yesterday?”

“Long story,” Aerith said with a sheepish smile. “But it’s okay! Thanks to Cloud, we were able to pick some more pretty quick, so I should still be able to drop them off tonight.” She turned to Cloud and tilted her head. “Do you mind helping me again?”

Cloud looked at her, slightly surprised at the question, and shook his head silently. "I don't mind," He mumbled quietly. He could see Elmyra looking at him though, eyeing him from head to toe, from his spiky blond hair to his undone uniform and down to his dirty old shoes. He shifted his weight nervously and avoided her eyes.

Elmyra stepped up to Aerith and grabbed her daughter's arms with a smile. “I’d feel better if you took them tomorrow, after school,” She said. “Otherwise, it’ll be dark when you get back.”

“Oh, good point,” Aerith said, frowning. She turned back to Cloud. “Then Cloud, do you want to stay for dinner? As a thanks for helping me. My mom makes the _best_ food.”

Cloud wanted to say yes, if for nothing else then to satisfy the hopeful look on Aerith’s face, but he was sensing some less-than-pleasant vibes from Elmyra. No doubt she thought he was an underachieving delinquent that she didn’t want her daughter to hang out with. At least she was polite and didn’t voice it, he thought.

“Um… Thanks, but I gotta get home,” He told Aerith. “My mom’s expecting me.”

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Aerith said sadly.

“Well, thank you for helping her, Cloud,” Elmyra said with a nod before walking past them to get to the front door. “Don’t stay out here too late, okay?”

“Okay!” Aerith called before Elmyra she disappeared inside their house. She turned to Cloud and gave him a mildly embarrassed, tight-lipped smile. “Sorry. My mom’s kind of… overprotective. It’s just me and her, you know.”

Cloud shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s just me and my mom, too. I get it.” He held out his basket of flowers for her and she took it with a nod.

“Then…” She hung both baskets on one arm so she could stick her hand into her skirt pocket and pull out her phone. She tapped her fingers against the screen a few times, then held it out to Cloud. “Here, give me your number. That way I can let you know next time I need help.”

Cloud blinked, at first taken aback at her asking for his number, and then smiled with a short breath of a laugh, unable to hold it back. He took her phone. “This was just a one-time gig, you know,” He told her as he typed his name and number. “If you expect me to keep working, I’m gonna need to get paid.”

“You don’t say…” Aerith said, taking her phone back from him with a mischievous smile. “In that case… One date oughta cover it!”

Cloud’s mouth fell open as his thoughts screeched to a grinding halt and his eyes went big. “H-Huh?” His ears were burning so hot, he was sure they were blazing red.

Aerith laughed and turned to skip to her front door. “See you later, Cloud,” She said in a sing-song voice as she stepped inside. She winked at him and shut the door with a wave.

Cloud stood in the middle of her garden for about another thirty seconds, stuck in shock, before he finally turned and picked up his bag to leave. He gave the house one more look over his shoulder and saw Aerith’s eyes peering at him through the window. She grinned and waved at him when she saw him look, and he gave her a small wave back before turning to leave.

He walked all the way back to his house in a numbed daze, thinking of what she’d said. She wanted to go on a date… A date with _him_. Unless, of course, she was only teasing him. She’d only just met him, after all. Cloud wished he wasn’t so awkward around her—he’d wanted to say yes, but it still felt like his brain was trying to catch up to what had happened.

He wasn’t sure if it was because of his dreams and the feeling that he already knew her, but Cloud felt something special pull him to Aerith, like a string kept them connected. There was something about her that made him want to spend more time with her, even though they’d only just met… _technically_. Maybe it was destiny, he thought. Maybe they were meant to meet in whatever lifetime they were born into, same as everyone else he knew, it seemed. If he were living in a romance novel, maybe they’d be called soulmates?

Cloud stopped and shook his head, even slapped himself on the cheek a couple of times. He was getting too overzealous—he didn’t even know how Aerith felt, yet there he was, contemplating if they were _soulmates._ Even in his dreams, he didn’t know if they were a couple, though… He hoped they were. Then he wondered if it was pathetic to hope that about a girl he'd just met.

Cloud sighed to himself and walked the last bit of distance to his house. He opened the door and immediately smelled his mom’s cooking wafting to him. He took off his shoes and walked to the kitchen. “I’m home,” He said to his mother.

She turned around from the stove and smiled at him. “You’re back late today,” She said. “I almost called you.”

“Sorry,” Cloud said with a nod. “Got caught up in some stuff.”

“Training with Tifa?” His mom asked as she turned back to her cooking.

“Um… No, actually,” Cloud told her. “Just… Some things. Nothing special.”

“Well, you seem to be in a better mood than this morning,” She said. “You’re feeling better?”

Cloud thought of the day, the roller coaster of emotions and the strange things that all led up to the chance moment he finally met Aerith. Being with her for even that short amount of time seemed to heal him and his worries, though—he hadn’t even noticed until now that the anxiety he had been feeling all day wasn’t bothering him anymore. He smiled to himself and quietly said, “Yeah. Much better.”

“Good, I’m glad,” His mom said to him before turning a dial on the stove. “And, dinner is served! I should have known you'd arrive as soon as the food was ready. Come on, make your own plate.”

Cloud and his mom ate dinner at the table that night, chatting about whatever came to mind. She was surprised to hear that Tifa had met him to walk to school, but Cloud avoided sharing the details of their conversation and the peculiar things he’d seen. He also conveniently left out his meeting with Aerith and the time spent with her, but there must have been a look in his eye because his mother leaned her head on her hands and looked at him with a knowing smile.

“You seem really happy today,” She said. “Did something special happen?”

“Uh…” Cloud’s face felt a little flushed and he prayed to whatever higher power that might hear him that his mother couldn’t see him blushing. Before he could answer though, his phone buzzed from where it was sitting on the table. He quickly picked it up, thankful for the distraction, and opened the message sent to him. It was from an unknown number, but he knew without even reading the text who it was from.

Unknown: _Hey Cloud! It’s Aerith! You know, that weird artsy flower girl you met earlier?_

Unknown: _Anyway, now that you remember, I wanted to thank you again for helping me today! And wanted to ask if you maybe wanted to help me deliver the flowers tomorrow?_

Unknown: _Don’t worry, I’ll give you that payment I promised~_

The last text was a picture of herself. She was winking at the camera and holding her pinky finger in front of her face in the show of a promise. Cloud got lost looking at the picture; she changed out of her uniform, and it looked like she was wearing a cozy t-shirt. Her hair was pulled back too, and she had a headband on to keep her fringe out of her face. Across her cheekbone was a small dab of paint—she must have been working on an art project. 

“Hello? Earth to Cloud?”

Cloud blinked and looked up, suddenly remembering that his mom was right in front of him. “Uh—s-sorry,” He said as he quickly put his phone facedown in his lap.

“Who was that?” She asked with a smile.

“No one,” Cloud said quickly before shoving a particularly large bite of food in his mouth.

“Hmm…” His mom leaned forward a little bit. “You looked pretty lovesick for no one.”

Cloud’s face flared hot as he choked on his food. “I wasn’t… It’s not like that,” He told her quietly, lowering his eyes to glare at his plate.

“Come on, you can tell me!” His mom said. She sounded just a little _too_ excited and Cloud's stomach sank. “Are you talking to a girl? A boy?”

Cloud’s face was burning now. “It’s just a… a new friend I met today,” He told her. It wasn’t often he could say he made a friend, and although he felt a longing to spend time with Aerith beyond friendship, he also wanted to call her his friend. He _liked_ calling her a friend.

His mom gave a contemplative hum and leaned back in her chair. “Okay, if you say so,” She said with her all-knowing smile. When Cloud glanced at her, he was reminded of the same smile Aerith had given him earlier. The two of them seemed very similar. He'd have to keep them away from each other.

They finished the rest of their meal without bringing the topic up again. Cloud itched to pick up his phone and text Aerith back, but he didn’t want to give his mother more ammunition to begin her questioning. When they finished, his mom went to the living room to relax and Cloud quickly did the dishes and then called to her that he was going to be in his room while dashing up the stairs without giving her any time to stop him.

Once the door was closed and Cloud was sat on his bed, he unlocked his phone. The first thing he did was save Aerith’s number, and then he stared at her photo as he tried to figure out what to write back. It seemed unusual to send a photo like that, especially to a person you'd only just met, but Aerith was a very unusual girl, Cloud figured. She was outgoing, energetic, seemingly fearless. She was the kind of person Cloud would usually try to avoid but she was different. She was... Aerith.

Cloud: **_Fine. But my rates are pretty high, you know. Not sure your original deal can cut it._ **

Cloud stared at the text he wrote before bravely hitting send with a shaking finger. He worried that he was being too forward and stared at the bubble indicating she was writing something back with rapt attention.

Aerith: _Oh really~? Well, that’s no problem for me! I’m very rich in dates you know, I can pay whatever price you’re asking._

Cloud almost dropped his phone in shock from her response. So then… She _wasn’t_ just teasing. She really did want to go on a date with him. Actually, she wanted to go on _multiple_ dates with him.

Before Cloud could respond, Aerith sent another text.

Aerith: _How about I make my first payment tomorrow, after we deliver the flowers?_

Cloud’s mouth felt very dry suddenly. He swallowed and thought of what to write back. He wanted to seem cool. _Suave._ Like he wasn’t sitting alone in his room getting anxiety over one simple text. He never worried about how to speak when he was with anyone else because he didn’t care how anyone perceived him. But Aerith… Well, Cloud knew well from another life that Aerith had a strange effect on him.

Cloud: **_Deal._ **

Cloud bit hard into his lower lip and dropped his phone to his bed to avoid staring at it until she responded so he could change into some pajamas. He grabbed his phone and his bag once he was changed and sat at his desk to begin doing homework. After he had pulled all his books out, his phone buzzed.

Aerith: _Then it’s a date_

She ended the text with an emoji of a pink heart and a flower. His homework promptly forgotten, Cloud instead texted her back again. He didn’t want the conversation to end. He thought for a couple of minutes of what he could say to keep things going.

Cloud: **_Working on a painting? You had paint on your cheek in your selfie_**

Aerith: _Just finished. I felt like if I stared at that canvas any longer my head would implode_

Cloud and Aerith texted back and forth the rest of the evening. It was a little bit easier to talk to her like this, when he had the time to think of what he’d say so he didn’t sound like an idiot. According to Aerith, she also was trying to get some homework done but, if she was like Cloud at all, that work was sitting unfinished in front of her. He tried to get some questions done in between their texts, but she was quick at replying. Oh well, he thought as he sent another text. He’d finish tomorrow morning.

Their messages unfortunately concluded after a good night text from Aerith. Cloud looked at the time, which he hadn’t been paying attention to the entire evening, and saw that it was already pretty late—later than he usually went to bed. He quickly got ready to sleep and lied down in his bed in the darkness of his room, his thoroughly used phone charging beside him.

As he stared up at the strip of moonlight streaked across his ceiling, he wondered about the other version of himself and Aerith. Was he just as nervous when they first met, or did he have more confidence? How did their relationship start, and how far did it go?

Cloud rolled over and shut his eyes, for once hoping for a dream that could answer more of his questions.

_She’s seated in front of him, her elbow rests on the windowsill and her chin in her hand. She’s looking out the small window of the gondola they’re in with a smile on her face, lost in the beauty of the world around them. “It’s so pretty,” She says quietly._

_She blinks and her head turns to face him. Her smile grows when their eyes meet and this time, there is no confusion. Nothing obscures her face from him_ — _he can see Aerith as she truly is. A green light reflects off of her pale skin and the two of them lean forward to look out the window together. Fireworks flare up in the sky, painting the world blue, purple, pink, red. He finds himself looking from the show to her; she is watching, completely enraptured, the fireworks reflecting in her big eyes like an emerald reflects light._

_“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” She asks. He wants to say yes, but he doesn’t mean the fireworks._

_Aerith leans back and he follows her lead. She looks at him for a moment and then lowers her eyes. She says quietly, “It kind of bothered me at first, how alike you two were. Two different people that looked so similar. I thought I saw him in you, but… You’re different..." She nods and bows her head. "Yeah... Things are different."  
_

_He doesn’t know what she’s talking about. He wants to ask, but he’s scared of what she’ll say. He feels a warmth over his hand, soft skin against his, and looks down. Her hand is covering his and, for some reason, he feels reassured._

_“I’m searching for you,” She says, her voice whisper soft and her eyes looking so deeply into his, he feels like she can see down to his core. His brows furrow in confusion and he frowns at her. Searching for what? He’s right in front of her._

_She smiles, her lips pink and enticing in a way he’s never felt before. “I want to meet you,” She says like it's a secret._

_He shakes his head. “But… I’m right here,” He tells her with just as quiet a voice._

_“I know_ — _w_ _hat I mean is…” She ducks her head for a moment and bites her lower lip. She meets his eyes again, looks at him with something gentle, something that makes him feel warm. Loved, even. “I want to meet… you.”_

_The lights of the fireworks are still filling their carriage, shining off of her hair and her skin. She is still holding his hand. His lips part to respond, but he can’t say a word, not when she begins to lean even closer to him while looking at him like that._

_Something compels him to move towards her, to help her close the bit of distance between them for good. But before he can, the brightness of the fireworks begin to dim. Her face, those lips, that moment, they’re shrouded in darkness until there is nothing left._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (all i'm saying is that no one knows what happened when the screen faded to black on the gondola)
> 
> thanks for reading! please subscribe and come scream about how much you love them with me
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	4. exchange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud helps Aerith with her deliveries and receives his first payment.

Tifa stood in front of Cloud’s desk with her eyes narrowed in suspicion and her lips pressed into a tight line. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she was tapping her foot impatiently like she was waiting for something to happen, though Cloud wasn’t sure what. She hadn’t said anything, just come over during a break between classes to silently glare at Cloud like she could read his mind if she looked hard enough.

Finally, Cloud sighed and lifted his head to look at her. “Can I help you?” He asked with a lazy voice, raising a brow.

Tifa frowned at him. “You’re acting weird,” She said accusingly.

“You’ve been saying that for the last week and a half,” Cloud murmured with a shake of his head. He didn’t want a repeat of what happened the morning before, when she’d gotten so upset at him he had almost worried that they were going to fight about it or worse. He looked back down at his phone when it buzzed to read the text on the screen.

“No, you’re acting even _weirder_ now,” Tifa said, her eyes flicking to the phone in Cloud’s hand. “You’re in such a good mood.”

Cloud blinked in mild incredulity and looked up at her again. His mouth opened and closed a few times as he tried to find a response to the strange accusation she’d made. “So… I’m weird if I’m in a bad mood,” Cloud finally said slowly. “But _weirder_ if I’m in a good mood?”

Tifa shook her head so aggressively, her hair swinging back and forth. “You know what I mean!” She put her hands on either side of his desk and leaned forward, so close Cloud couldn’t look anywhere but her narrowed, watchful eyes. “Who have you been texting all day?”

Cloud immediately hid his phone under his desk. “N-No one,” He told her while shaking his head.

“You’re a bad liar,” Tifa said, nodding her chin towards Cloud’s hidden phone. “Come on, no need to hide. What’s going on?”

“It’s just…” Cloud’s eyes drifted somewhere to the left as he tried to come up with a lie. He wasn’t sure what it was, but there was this feeling in his gut telling him that he shouldn’t tell Tifa about Aerith. Not yet, anyway. To be fair though, he didn't really want to deal with the fallout of _anyone_ hearing about it right now. He cleared his throat and slowly said, “Z… Zack…”

Tifa frowned and her brows furrowed. “Zack? _That’s_ whose texts have you all smiley?”

Cloud leaned back in his seat so he could properly glare at her. “I don’t think I’ve smiled once today,” He retorted.

“Your smiles are different from actual smiles,” Tifa told him with a wave of her hand. “You smile with your eyes.”

“You’re watching my eyes?” Cloud asked dryly, and he let himself take great amusement and satisfaction in the way her face flared red in embarrassment.

“N-No! I’ve just known you so long that I can see it!” She cried so loudly some other students looked over at her. She shook her head and stood up from his desk to put the distance back between him. “S-So. Zack. What’s up with him, anyway?”

“Um…” Cloud shrugged one shoulder. “He’s fine. Y’know, just living the typical college experience and… whatever.”

“I bet he’s partying his ass off every weekend,” Tifa said with a scoff. “I wonder how many girls he’s taken on a date already.”

“I try to avoid hearing about his love life,” Cloud mumbled bitterly. His friend Zack was quite the ladies man, the complete opposite of Cloud. He’d had so many girlfriends, Cloud hadn’t even had the chance to meet all of them. Not that Cloud was particularly interested, anyway. Zack made dating sound like a competitive sport, and Cloud had learned to tune him out when his friend tried to discuss it.

“I wonder if he’ll visit soon...” Tifa pondered absentmindedly. She shook her head and smiled at Cloud. “Well, I’m glad to see you’re feeling better at least, even if it is a little weird. And sorry for ambushing you and stuff. I’m training again today, wanna come since you ditched me yesterday?”

“Uh, I actually can’t today,” Cloud said. He turned his phone over in his hand under the desk, nervously itching to pull it out so he could see the text waiting for him. “And not ‘cause I wanna ditch you again. I have... plans.”

“Oh,” Tifa looked rather surprised. Her brows pinched together as she no doubt tried to think of what Cloud could _possibly_ have going on—he rarely had plans and when he did, they usually involved her. The bell rang, interrupting her thoughts, and she frowned at him with a nod. “Well then… Next time?”

“Definitely.” Cloud nodded and watched her walk back to her desk. He frowned as he turned back to the front of the room. Tifa seemed to be trying to make more of an effort to spend time with him lately; she woke up early again today to walk with him to school, left her friends to speak with him during the break, even found him during lunch to eat with him. It was strange, but not entirely unwelcome. Cloud just wondered where the sudden change came from.

He looked down at his phone to tap a quick message before the teacher came back in to teach.

Cloud: **_Class is about to start again. I’ll see you after school?_ **

**** Aerith: _Definitely! I’ll meet you outside your school gate ^^_

Cloud felt his lips pull up a bit, then remembering that Tifa was keeping a very observing eye on him, he shoved his phone into his desk and bit the inside of his cheek to suppress the smile. He’d been texting Aerith since he woke up from his dream this morning—for how late she stayed up the night before, she woke up even earlier than he did. Apparently her school started before his, but that meant it ended earlier, so she didn’t mind. According to her though, she usually slept until noon on weekends to make up for all the missed sleep during the week. Cloud just laughed at that.

Cloud watched the clock, eager for the day to end, and his mind drifted to the dream he’d had the previous night. It was the first time since this entire strange ordeal began that he didn’t want to wake up. He’d wanted to stay in that gondola for the rest of his life, to live in that moment for as long as he could.

He’d been able to see Aerith in his dream clearly for the first time, and for the entirety of the dream. The way she sat in front of him, the way he could feel her warmth and her hand on his, it didn’t at all feel like a dream, but like he was reliving a memory. He was only remembering something he’d long forgotten though once he did remember, it was with such clarity it was a wonder to him how he could ever forget in the first place. That’s what all of the dreams had felt like, really, but this one in particular… It felt special, like a memory he’d archived deep in his heart to hold onto for the rest of time.

And… it had been a date, he thought. It certainly felt like one, anyway.

And at the end, when she’d leaned in close… But then the moment had faded away and he’d woken up very unhappily before he could experience what happened next. When he opened his eyes and found himself back in his room though, his lips were tingling.

Cloud’s leg shook in anticipation the entire rest of the day until that damned last bell finally rang. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt so excited for something—he didn’t know if he’d _ever_ felt this way before. But as soon as the bell rang, he was up from his desk with his bag already packed and out the door. He wove through the students meeting their friends in the hallways and walked quickly down the stairs and out the front doors. He crossed the campus in record time and stepped through the gate.

“Surprise!”

Cloud jumped in shock and turned around to find Aerith leaning against the wall surrounding the school and laughing so hard she had to hold her stomach. A few people leaving the school looked at the two of them and whispered amongst each other, undoubtedly wondering about Cloud the Loner meeting a girl none of them knew, but neither Cloud nor Aerith paid them any mind.

“Sorry!” She said through her laughter. “Didn’t mean to scare you.” 

Cloud blinked at her, then smiled and shook his head in amused exasperation. He rather liked hearing her laugh uncontrollably like that. He looked to her left, where a pink bike waited with bundles of the flowers they had picked the previous night in the basket.

She noticed his look and patted the seat of the bike. “I thought we could take this!” She told him. “It’ll make the deliveries quicker, which means I can pay you quicker!”

Cloud swallowed, his heart suddenly thumping in his chest at the thought of the _payment_ that was to come. “Uh, sure,” He said with a nod. “But… I don’t have a bike.” 

“Do you know how to ride?” She asked, and he nodded. “Then you ride, and I’ll sit on the back!”

She gestured to the small, flat rack over the back wheel, where baskets or boxes could be strapped on. “Uh… Are you sure?” Cloud asked her, eyeing the little bit of metal wearily. “It seems a little…”

“Of course! I’ve done it before and besides, I know you’ll keep me safe! Now come on, we don’t want the day to slip away, do we?” Aerith smiled at him and grabbed the handlebars of the bike to walk it down the sidewalk, away from the crowd of students trying to get home so they could get on and ride a bit more easily. She walked in the opposite direction of her house for a little while and Cloud followed, until they were in a more open space.

Cloud took the handlebars from her when she offered them and threw his leg over the bike, then looked back at her, waiting. She sat behind him, side-saddle, and twisted a bit to wrap one arm around his waist for security. “Let’s go!” She punched her other hand above her head in excitement.

Cloud, however, was acutely aware of the arm wrapped around him and the warmth of her body against his back. He gulped, prayed he wouldn’t crash, and then gripped the handlebars tightly and began pedaling forward. They swayed a few times as Cloud got used to biking with an extra person, and while Cloud stammered out an apology each time, Aerith just laughed in enjoyment and whooped like she was on an amusement park ride.

Once he got the hang of it though, it was an easy ride straight down the road. The cool wind blew through his hair in an almost comforting way and like this, it was like he could shut off his seemingly never ending thoughts for a little while and focus on nothing but the road ahead of him and Aerith behind him. He'd never thought biking was anything special until this moment, and he thought it would be nice to try it more often. She gave him directions every now and then as they biked along, and eventually, her other arm wrapped around him and her chin rested on his shoulder. Cloud gripped the handles so tightly he could hear the rubber squeak against his skin.

“Maybe you should make a career as a flower deliverer,” Aerith teased, her voice so close to Cloud’s ear he could feel her breath kiss his skin. “You’re certainly good at this.”

“If the price is right,” Cloud responded. Aerith giggled.

Eventually, Aerith pointed ahead of them. “It’s that building there, to the right,” She told him. He nodded and biked the last of the distance to the building she pointed out, disappointed the ride was ending so soon but needing the moment to breathe properly once she let go of him. She hopped off the back of the bike, and he watched her as she walked around to the front to grab some flowers. She looked at him and tilted her head. “Well? Aren’t you coming?”

“Oh, uh—right,” Cloud nodded and got off the bike. He parked it in the grass, out of the way of people walking by, and then nodded at her to lead the way.

“Come on, let’s go!” She grabbed his wrist to pull him inside the building. Cloud found himself staring at the point of contact like there was a spotlight on it until they were through the doors and she let go.

The door opened up to a lobby and a common area, where some older people were walking around, some sitting watching television or playing games at tables. Some people waved at Aerith and called her name. Cloud felt vaguely like he was following behind a celebrity—it seemed Aerith was popular and well-liked here.

“Well, if it isn’t Aerith,” A woman from a nearby table said.

“Hello Mireille,” Aerith said cheerfully. She held up her flowers and smiled. “I brought some more flowers for everyone.”

“Good, we need them,” The woman Mireille said with a nod. “This place is god awful without them.”

As Aerith laughed, a young girl sitting across from Mireille turned to look at her. “Hey Aerith,” She said with a nod.

“Hey Kyrie!” Aerith responded. “Long time no see!”

Kyrie didn’t respond to that—her attention switched from Aerith to Cloud in a heartbeat and she smirked. “Who’s the guy?” She asked with a mischievous glint in her eye and a dangerous tone in her voice.

“This is Cloud,” Aerith told her. Cloud frowned as Aerith introduced him—now it felt like the entire room was looking at _him_ , the chatter dying down as people turned in their seats to hear about him. “I’m employing him to help me deliver flowers.”

“Heh, you don’t say…” Kyrie murmured. Mireille reached across the table and slapped Kyrie’s arm sharply. “Ow, grandma! What the hell?!”

“It’s better than shoving you in a cold shower,” Mireille scolded harshly. “Leave Aerith’s boyfriend alone.”

Cloud shook his head which suddenly felt very hot. “I-I’m not—”

Aerith’s laughter cut him off. “Don’t worry about it,” She told Mireille and Kyrie. She walked away from them to drop the flowers off at the front desk and then quickly returned to Cloud’s side. “We’d love to stay, but we have a schedule to keep.”

“Have fun,” Kyrie mumbled bitterly. She was now slumped in her seat with her arms crossed over her chest, the skin where Mireille slapped her already turning an angry red.

“I’ll see you next time!” Aerith said with a laugh and a wave.

“See you then, dear,” Mireille said, nodding. “And bring Cloud along, too. I'd like to hear him say a word or two. I’ll make sure Kyrie isn’t here.” She got a look that could kill from her granddaughter at that. She returned the glare with twice as much force.

Aerith put a hand on Cloud’s arm and grinned. “He has no choice as long as I keep paying him!” She squeezed his bicep teasingly and Cloud kept his eyes on his shoes, his heartbeat like thunder in his ears over a simple little touch.

Mireille laughed, and Cloud hoped desperately that it wasn’t because she could see the way his face flushed. He ducked his head and turned to leave without saying a word. Aerith said goodbye to a few more people and then joined him back outside, next to the bike.

“We have to deliver to the orphanage today, too,” Aerith said with a gesture to the remaining flowers in the basket. “I usually do here one day, the orphanage the next, but since yesterday got derailed we have to squeeze both in today. But it’s close by, so it won’t take long!”

Cloud shrugged. “No big deal,” He said as he pulled the bike back to the sidewalk. “It’s what you’re paying me for.”

Aerith laughed as they both took their seats on the bike. She once again wrapped her arms around him and nodded, tilting her head where it rested against his shoulder to look up at him. “That’s right!”

Cloud nodded at her with his lips clamped firmly shut—he could only say so many words around her before he worried he’d sound like an idiot and even less when her arms were wrapped around him. He put his feet on the pedals to continue their journey and biked about ten more minutes down the street when Aerith told him to stop again. He looked at the sign in front of the building and raised a brow. “'Avalanche Orphanage?'” He read. “That’s a weird name for an orphanage.”

Aerith laughed and gathered the flowers in her arms. “It’s an _interesting_ place. But it’s great. Come on, you’ll love it.”

Cloud followed her into the building and as soon as she stepped inside, she was surrounded by a hoard of children calling her name. She greeted each of them, patted their heads and gave them individual flowers from the bouquets. “You’re popular,” Cloud said quietly.

As soon as he spoke, all of the kids turned their attention to him like they had only just noticed he was there. “Aerith, who’s your friend?” One girl asked.

“He looks cool!” A boy said. At once, they were all surrounding him, asking him more questions then he could answer.

“This is my friend,” Aerith told all the kids with a sympathetic smile in Cloud’s direction. “His name’s Cloud.”

“What’s goin’ on out here?” A loud, deep voice asked. “Is that Aerith I hear?”

Aerith turned to greet the man that had just walked into the room. “Hi Barret!” She said, holding up the flowers. “I come bearing gifts.”

“What would we do without you,” Barret said as he took the flowers from her. He was a big guy; he towered over Aerith, was at least a full head taller than Cloud, and was built like a tank. His arms were covered in tattoos, but his eyes were soft and kind in a way that contrasted heavily from the rest of his appearance as he smiled at Aerith in thanks. He looked down when a little girl tugged on his pants and bent to scoop the girl into his arms. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

The girl shook her head silently, but she was looking at Cloud in fear. Cloud blinked back at the girl and frowned—he wasn’t sure what he’d done to warrant that reaction. Aerith smiled and stepped forward to take the girl’s small hand. “Don’t be shy, Marlene,” Aerith said comfortingly. “Cloud’s just a big softie! Nothing to be scared of!”

But Marlene wasn’t reassured and instead hid her face in Barret’s shoulder. He narrowed his eyes and stepped around Aerith to get a closer look at Cloud. “Scarin’ my daughter, huh?” He asked lowly.

“Uh, I—” Cloud stammered as he looked between Aerith and Barret—he certainly hadn’t meant to scare the girl and he really didn’t want to have a fight in an _orphanage_ of all places. He was pretty sure Barret could crush him with one hand.

Barret glared at Cloud for ten more seconds, then gave a booming laugh and clapped his hand so hard over Cloud’s shoulder, Cloud’s knees buckled a bit. “Man, I’m just kiddin’! My Marlene’s just a little shy, isn’t that right?” He patted Marlene’s back and she lifted her head just to pout at him.

Aerith held her hand up, gesturing to Barret. “Barret helps run the orphanage,” She told Cloud. She winked. “He’s a big softie, too.”

“Hey, I got a rep to keep y’know,” Barret told her as he put Marlene down; she quickly ran into another room. “You gonna stay a bit? You know we always got enough food for you. And your friend, if he plays nice.”

Aerith smiled apologetically and shook her head. “Can’t, sorry. Cloud and I have some other plans.”

“Do you, now?” Barret asked slowly. He walked towards Cloud and all of the kids surrounding him parted immediately. He stopped when his chest was almost bumping Cloud’s nose, and Cloud had to tilt his head practically all the way back to meet his eyes. “You better treat her well. Otherwise you’ll have _me_ to answer to.”

Cloud frowned and narrowed his eyes at the man. “Noted.” He said sharply.

“Okay, okay, down boys,” Aerith said teasingly as she appeared at their sides. “No fighting in front of the kids.”

“You know I’d never fight in front of the little ones,” Barret said as he took a step back. “But I’ll go outside if I have to.”

Cloud crossed his arms over his chest and looked away with a frustrated huff of breath. Aerith just laughed again and put her hand on Cloud’s arm to push him towards the door. “I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” She said over her shoulder to Barret. “I’ll see you next week, okay?”

Barret nodded, and the group of children once again surrounded Cloud and Aerith, blocking their path outside. “Will Cloud come too?” One of the boys asked.

“Aerith, Aerith! Bring Cloud next time!” Another one said while tugging on her skirt.

Aerith smiled and gestured to Cloud. “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

All of the kids turned their eyes to Cloud at once. “Cloud, will you come again?” A boy at the front asked.

“Uh…” Cloud looked between their many hopeful faces, then up at Aerith. She was giving him a sidelong glance, waiting for his answer with a small smile and raised brows. He cleared his throat and shrugged. “Sure… I guess.”

“Hurray!!!” All the kids cried at the same time. Cloud thought of the first dream he’d had, in that shabby little town surrounded by the kids with the swords on their backs that seemed just as happy to see him. And Aerith had been there too; it seemed she liked to help as much as she could in every universe.

“We really have to go now,” Aerith told them with an apologetic smile. “But you heard him everyone! We’ll come back and play next week, okay? We’ll stay as long as you want.”

The kids all nodded and waved excitedly while yelling goodbyes as Aerith and Cloud left the orphanage. Cloud shook his head as they walked down the front steps and back to the bike. “You were right. It is an _interesting_ place,” He said when Aerith came up by his side. Aerith grabbed the handlebars of her bike before Cloud could and began wheeling it down the sidewalk, and Cloud followed without question. 

“Yeah, but they’re fun. And Barret’s a sweetheart, even if he tries not to show it,” She told Cloud. The sun was setting in front of them, painting the sky hazy pink and orange and bathing the street in a warm glow. “Marlene is actually his friend’s daughter, but her parents died when she was a baby, so Barret adopted her. It meant so much to him, he quit his job and began working full time at the orphanage. It was about to be shut down before he joined. He saved the place.”

“Sounds like a good guy,” Cloud said with a nod as they walked along.

“He is,” Aerith said before falling quiet for a moment. She lifted her chin and looked up at the sky with a sharp breath, like she was readying herself for something. “Actually… I was in that orphanage for a little while.”

Cloud looked at Aerith in surprise, frowning. “You were?”

Aerith nodded again. “Elmyra isn’t my birth mother,” She explained. “My real mom died when I was little. I lived in the orphanage for maybe a year before Elmyra adopted me. She’s been my mom ever since.”

“I… I’m sorry,” Cloud said quietly.

Aerith shook her head and looked at him, smiling widely. “Don’t be! I’m happy with my mom, really,” She said. “And besides… It’s not like I can go back in time and change anything. And maybe not everything was perfect all the time, but it all led to this moment. Right?”

She tilted her head at Cloud, her waved hair falling over one shoulder. Cloud looked at her inquisitive eyes, evergreen shimmering under the glowing sunlight, and nodded. “Y-Yeah,” He stuttered. It felt almost like destiny, he thought, that they’d meet again. He looked ahead and cleared his throat. “So… Where exactly are we headed?”

“There’s a little cafe right up here,” Aerith told him. “I go there all the time after I finish my deliveries. I thought I could repay you there if you like it?”

The corner of Cloud’s lips lifted in a half-smile. “Sure,” He nodded.

Aerith gave him a grin and led him to the cafe ahead, a little building that mimicked the look of a storybook house with a lush green yard and a fence surrounding it. She locked her bike in front of it and Cloud held the door open for her. Inside, the cafe was painted light pink and there were flowers lining every window and on each table. Aerith looked at Cloud with her brows raised, gauging his reaction. He glimpsed at her and then looked back around the cafe.

“I can see why you like it,” He said. “Definitely your style.”

“What, so pink and flowery isn’t _your_ style?” She laughed and took his hand hanging by his side to take him to the counter. “Come on! My payment officially starts now.”

Cloud’s throat got tight and he very suddenly worried that his hand would become sweaty in hers. She didn’t let go of his hand even once they reached the counter and the barista asked for their orders. Cloud couldn’t hear what Aerith or the barista said, not with the way his ears were stuffed with cotton and his own heartbeat was deafening. All he could focus on were their hands, hanging casually between their bodies like that was how they were meant to be. He involuntarily squeezed his fingers a bit tighter around hers. 

Aerith tugged on his hand and he looked at her, gulping. “Cloud?” She asked, gesturing to the waiting barista. She was smiling slightly, like she was amused by him and his slow-running brain.

“Oh… Uh…” Cloud gulped at the overwhelming amount of choices on the menu in front of them he'd been too distracted to properly read. To save himself the embarrassment of taking five minutes to order, he just said, “S-Same as her.”

The barista nodded and finished placing their order. Aerith pulled money out before Cloud could and handed it to the barista, then tugged on his hand again. “Come on!”

She led him to a table in the corner by a window and finally let him go to sit him down in one of the chairs. She sat down across from him and grinned, and Cloud stared at her dumbly. Now that he was here, alone with her, on an actual _date_ , he felt like he couldn’t remember how to speak or even function like a normal human being. He thought he’d been doing mostly okay the entire afternoon—he’d been able to get more than two words out and had even had the brain capacity to tease a couple of times. But now that they were _officially_ on their date? Now it was like his mind had melted to jelly with one look from her. He tried to think back to the dreams—how did he act around her then? 

Then he remembered that, even in that other life with her, he seemed to have the same nervous problem. He was no help, he cursed at himself. Apparently he was awkward around her in every life.

“So,” Aerith rested her arms on the table and leaned forward. “Cloud. Do you... have any hobbies?”

Cloud shook his head. “Uh, no, not really. Not anything special like you, anyway.”

Aerith tilted her head from side to side while humming in thought and Cloud’s brain melted even more. She was just so _cute_ in everything she did. She eventually shook her head and shrugged. “My hobbies aren’t _that_ special!” She said with a little laugh.

“You have a huge flower garden and deliver them all over town,” Cloud told her. “And you’re an artist. Seems pretty special to me.”

Aerith tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and smiled bashfully. “I guess… I never really thought of it that way. It’s just what I’ve always done.” She grinned at him and leaned forward a bit more. “And hey, that means you have a special hobby too, since you’re delivering the flowers with me!” 

Cloud felt something warm blossom in his chest from her bright green eyes looking at him and his gaze shifted away before he got caught staring too hard. “Does it count if it’s a job?” He asked quietly, teasingly.

“Well, of course!” Aerith insisted with a nod. “Who said your hobby can’t be your job too, huh?”

Cloud smiled slightly and nodded. “Yeah, I guess,” He murmured.

He glanced up at her again, at her smiling face and her big eyes that were focused only on him like he was something interesting. The Aerith sitting across from him, she seemed as sweet and as kind as the Aerith he met in his dreams. She was outgoing, personable, selfless. It left him wondering what she saw in him and his lonely, quiet attitude. At least in that strange other life, he was something more. He fought monsters, he protected people, he was strong, a hero. Here though, this life he was living now, he wasn’t anything special. Everyone else could see it; what about her?

“Hey, uh…” Cloud swallowed and looked down at the table. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course you can,” Aerith told him.

“Um… Why did you offer... _this_ as payment?” He asked her while gesturing vaguely between them. “I mean, what… W-What made you...” His voice trailed away as he realized how dumb of a question it was to ask and that he may have possibly ruined the whole date.

“Hmm? What made me interested, you mean?” Aerith tilted her head and blinked at him curiously. “Well, I’m interested because… You’re you.”

He lifted his eyes to her in surprise. He wanted to ask what she thought was so exceptional about him, but thought better of it. Instead, he shook his head and frowned. “But… You hardly know me.”

“I guess…” Aerith leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling in thought. She smiled at him again, soft and sweet. “It doesn’t really feel that way. You know?”

Cloud’s lips parted and his eyes went wide at her words. Of course he knew what she meant—although they’d technically just met, it felt like he already knew her. But then again, that was because he _did_ know her, and she knew him too, whether she was aware of it or not. They'd known each other for much longer than either of them knew, for lifetimes it felt like. But he wondered how she could feel the same way, if she knew more than Cloud originally thought or if she meant it as deeply as Cloud felt. As she looked at him, he thought he saw something swimming deep in her eyes, something knowing, something that told him more than her words alone did. 

“Aerith…” He said slowly. “Do you…?”

The barista interrupted the moment right then. He set their drinks down with a nod and walked away quickly enough, but Cloud felt his resolve shrink to zero in a split second and his courage to ask her what she meant faded away. Aerith picked up her drink and took a sip.

“And,” She said as she put the drink down. “Well… Maybe it’s a little forward to say, but… I want to know you _more._ ”

She nodded once and ducked her head to look at her drink. She stirred the straw around in it slowly, and through the hair covering her face, Cloud saw a faint pink blush blooming on her cheeks. He swallowed and shook his head, said, “I-It’s not. Forward, I mean.”

Aerith looked up at him again and smiled shyly. “You don’t think so?”

“O-Of course not,” Cloud said, shaking his head. Then, quietly, he told her, “I… I wanna know you more, too.”

A wide, bright as sunshine smile bloomed on Aerith’s face and she nodded. She held her drink up to him. “Then, here’s to getting to know each other.”

Cloud held his drink up to her and clinked their glasses together. He then ruined the moment when he took his first sip and immediately almost choked on it. “This is… Strong,” He said, once he had maintained his composure.

“Oh yeah, I do love coffee,” She told him as she took another sip. “It practically runs through my veins at this point.”

“For some reason… That’s not surprising,” Cloud said as he thought of Aerith’s seemingly bottomless reserves of energy.

“Is that a compliment?” Aerith asked with a curious smile. Before Cloud could entertain her with an answer, she looked down and shoved her hand into her pocket to pull out her vibrating phone. She held her finger up to Cloud with a smile of apology and answered the phone. “Hey mom! I’m just at… _Yes_ , I’m with him, if you must know. ...It’s fine, mom! Don’t worry, okay? I won’t be out too late. Okay. Love you too.”

She hung up and put her phone back in her pocket with a quick sorry. Cloud cleared his throat and fiddled with the straw in his drink. “It… Doesn’t really seem like your mom likes me very much,” Cloud said quietly. He wasn’t mad about it, not really; he was used to people assuming the worst of him without knowing anything about him. But this time… For some reason, it bothered him more. He wanted Elmyra to like him. He wanted her to trust him, to know he would never cause trouble for Aerith.

Aerith shook her head and waved a flippant hand. “Don’t worry about it, she’s just protective, remember?” She folded her hands on the table and picked at her nails a bit. “She didn’t really like the first guy I dated, and it didn’t end well which just made her opinion of him even worse. I think she’s just concerned. You know how moms are.”

“Oh yeah, I do,” Cloud said with a nod.

“Actually… You kind of reminded me of him, you know,” Aerith admitted quietly. She shook her head with a smile. “But you two are _so_ different. It's like night and day.”

Cloud heard ringing in his ears and his brows pulled together. He was feeling major deja-vu—that’s right, his dream in the gondola the night before. She’d said something similar then, hadn’t she? But then and now, he had no idea what she meant. Similar to… _who?_

“Now that I think of it… I think he used to go to your school,” Aerith murmured absentmindedly as she sipped at her drink.

“Really?” Cloud asked as he tried to ignore the odd feeling. “What was his—”

The ringing grew so loud, it deafened him. He shut his eyes against the sudden throbbing pain in his skull and put a hand to his head. He tried to blink his eyes open, but when he did, his sight of the cafe and Aerith in front of him got blurred and cut in and out and for a split second, he swore he saw a dark park stretched out in front of him. 

_“You were the same rank... As the first guy I ever loved.”_

“Cloud??”

Cloud felt her hand cover his own that was resting on the table and lifted his eyes to Aerith as the pain in his head faded away. He was back in the cafe, in that moment with her like nothing had happened. “S-Sorry,” He said as he grabbed his glass with his free hand to distract himself with a drink.

“Are you okay?” Aerith asked in a soft voice, frowning with unease.

“I’m fine,” Cloud said with a nod. “Um, w-what was the guy’s name?” _I probably know him,_ he heard his voice finish in his mind.

Aerith’s eyes lingered on Cloud for a long moment, filled with concern and worry. She bit into her lower lip and opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself short and shook her head with an awkward smile. “Maybe we should drop it,” She said, laughing sheepishly. She squeezed Cloud’s hand. “Probably not a great idea to talk about exes right now, huh?”

Cloud nodded at her. Right. This was a _date_ , after all. And date between the two of them and not the jerk that upset her.

“But the reason I brought it up,” Aerith said, lifting her eyes to Cloud. “Is because I think my mom is worried because of all that, but she’ll get over it once she gets to know you and sees how sweet you are.”

“Uh—” Cloud swallowed and his eyes flicked to the window. He scratched behind his ear. “Am I?”

“Of course you are!” Aerith laughed. “Don’t try to pretend, mister. Anyone that knows you can see it.”

She bit her bottom lip as she smiled at him coyly. And of course she’d say such a thing, he thought as he looked at her. She probably knew him better than anyone else, even himself, even if she didn't realize it yet. 

“Then… I’ll try to make sure she sees that,” Cloud promised her.

Aerith’s smile grew. “Good. Now drink up. You’re going to have to get used to drinking coffee if you’re going to spend a lot of time with me.”

Cloud chuckled and nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

They left the cafe after they finished their drinks and began their walk home once the sun had completely set. Cloud pushed the bike down the sidewalk—neither of them made a move to get on it, which Cloud was grateful for. The more time spent with Aerith, the better. He didn’t want the night to end yet, but they both did have to abide by their mothers’ rules. They walked slowly though, trying to stretch their time as long as they could.

Aerith held her hands behind her back and looked up at the sky while they walked while humming a made up song. The moonlight was pale and the stars twinkled dimly against the black expanse above them, their luster drowned out by the lights from the city. “What do you think of the sky, Cloud?” She asked suddenly.

Cloud looked up as well and mulled over her question. “I don’t really have any thoughts about it,” He said quietly. “It's… Fine, I guess.”

“It kind of scares me, honestly. There’s so much out there, and we have no idea,” She told him. She turned her head to him and smiled brightly. “Hey, we’re kind of like the earth and sky, don’t you think?”

Cloud frowned as he thought about it. “Does that mean I scare you?”

Aerith laughed and shook her head. “Don’t be silly.” She pointed up at a single cloud that floated above them. “Your name says it perfectly. You’re the clouds—you cover up the scary part.”

“O-Oh…” Cloud cleared his throat and nodded, unsure of what to say in response, but the thought of Aerith thinking of him in such a way made something swell in his chest. Aerith gave him a sidelong glance, smiling like she was up to no good. Cloud almost thought she _liked_ turning him into a stuttering mess or something. She laughed quietly when he didn’t say anything else, and as embarrassed as he was, Cloud thought that maybe he didn’t mind so much if he meant he got to hear her laugh.

“Ah, here I am,” Aerith said when they were just about at her house. She stopped in front of her gate and turned to look at Cloud. The two stood there a good ten seconds in silence. Aerith bit her bottom lip and scuffed her shoe along the ground, and Cloud’s eyes lowered for a moment as he thought of what to say, what to _do_. He blinked his eyes back up at her and took a breath.

“So…” They both said at the same time.

Aerith giggled and took her bike from Cloud. “Same time next week?” She asked him. "We can do the orphanage one day and the home the next, if you're up for it."

Cloud nodded. “Sure,” He told her. He opened his mouth to say something, but his throat constricted in nervousness before he could. He wanted to see her before then, but for as much as he usually didn’t care about… well, anything, he cared very much about what her response would be, or how she would react.

“Unless…” Aerith said instead, like she could read his thoughts. She raised her brows at him and smiled hopefully. “Are you maybe free this weekend?”

“Yes,” Cloud said immediately. “Uh—y-yeah. I’m free.”

“Good,” Aerith nodded with a smile that seemed to light up the dark night. “I’ll text you, then.”

Cloud nodded. He opened the gate for her and as she walked past him, he asked, “Will that count as a payment?”

Aerith paused just in front of him, the space between them so minimal he could feel the warmth of her body, and looked up at him. “I’ll let you decide that,” She said quietly. 

Cloud blinked wide eyes at her, his thoughts grinding to a halt. “Uh…” His mind tried to process what she'd said and the fact that she was standing so incredibly close to him. There were so many things he wanted to do, but his lack of courage and his brain's current inability to send commands to his limbs left him staring at her instead.

Aerith giggled and continued down the path. “Good night, Cloud,” She said airily.

She pushed her bike to her front door and Cloud stood there, still holding the gate open but walking no further, to watch her as she parked her bike and headed inside. “Good night, Aerith,” He said just loud enough to reach her as she opened her front door.

Aerith looked over her shoulder with a smile and waved at him, and then the door shut between them.

Cloud released a long breath—what felt like the first full one he was able to take all night—and shut the gate. He sighed, turned around to begin his walk home and was stopped with a small jump when he saw Jessie standing behind him, watching him with curiosity. 

“Hey, Cloud,” She said slowly. There was a smile growing on her face like she had a juicy secret.

“W-What are you doing here?” Cloud asked, furrowing his brows.

“Just on my way to my acting class,” Jessie told him as she gestured vaguely down the street. She lifted her chin towards Aerith’s house behind him, still with that annoyingly knowledgeable smile playing at her lips. “So… Who’s the girl?”

“No one,” Cloud said quickly. He crossed his arms over his chest like it could shield him from her questions.

“Didn’t look like no one to me,” Jessie replied. “Were you on a date or something? _That’s_ a sight I never thought I’d see.”

Cloud swallowed and looked at the dark concrete. His stomach was twisted in anxiety—it wasn’t that he didn’t want anyone to know about Aerith or that he was embarrassed just… He didn’t like private aspects of his life being known. He had a hard time sharing his feelings sometimes, especially with something like this. And to Jessie of all people.

“I’ve seen her around. She’s cute. She doesn’t go to our school, right?” She asked when he didn’t say anything. He didn’t look at her, but he shook his head no. Jessie nodded, then shrugged one shoulder and winked at him. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell Tifa.”

Cloud lifted his eyes to frown at her. “Why would that…?” He felt a bit odd telling Tifa—or anyone, really—about his time spent with Aerith, but he couldn’t think of any specific reason to keep it from her other than his own awkwardness. So… Why would Jessie care?

Jessie laughed and turned to continue walking down the street. “See you later, Cloud,” She said in a sing-song voice.

Cloud watched her walk down the street until she disappeared from his view before slowly turning around and walking away, towards his house. He shook his head. Jessie did love teasing him—actually, torturing was probably a better word. She might not tell Tifa, but she'd probably bring this up every time she saw him just to see him squirm. He’d have to make sure he avoided her as best he could.

As Cloud reached the end of the street, he heard something. A quiet, low laugh, so close it was like someone was right over his shoulder. He turned around quickly, but there was no one there. All he could see was Aerith’s dark and empty street, lit dimly by a few streetlights and the moon above. 

_“You can’t save anyone.”_

The same cold, piercing voice, whispering into his ear. Cloud turned around again with a gasp and wide eyes, but again found himself alone. His heart was racing in his chest for a reason he couldn’t explain, pounding so hard he felt like he was gasping for breath as an unknown terror gripped him. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he looked around, trying to find where that voice could have come from.

Though, he already knew that the voice he’d heard was not spoken here, not in this moment or even in this life. Still, even while reminding himself of that, he couldn’t help the chill that ran down his spine, nor the fear building in his gut as he walked the rest of the way home.

That night, for the first time in many long nights, he slept a troubled yet dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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	5. wishes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud and Aerith go on another date, and Cloud has to deal with some of the conflicts that being with her brings.

_“Heya.”_

_He looks up from his feet, which are dangling freely in the open night air, and sees a girl in a blue dress peeking around the water tower at him—Tifa. Her straight black hair hangs over her shoulder, but she pushes it back when she stands straight to walk over to him. She sits at his side, keeping a bit of space between them. He sits on one side of the corner, she on the other, so they aren’t facing each other._

_“So… What did you wanna talk about?” She asks him. She swings her feet back and forth like he had been doing and leans back on her hands to look up at the sky that’s painted bright with stars._

_“When spring comes, I’m going to go to Midgar,” He tells her._

_She hums, but it almost sounds like a sigh, solemn and resigned. “All the boys are leaving.”_

_He shakes his head and turns slightly to look at her. “But I’m not like them,” He tells her, because he’s never been like the other kids, and he needs her to know that. “I’m not going just to find a job. I’m going to join SOLDIER. Be the best of the best. Like Sephiroth!”_

_As he looks back up at the sky, his heart swells in his chest at the endless possibilities in front of him and the thought of accomplishing his dreams. Finally, he would be something special. Finally, he would be seen. Tifa rests her hands against the edge of the wooden platform they’re sitting on and leans forward a bit to look down at her feet._

_“The great Sephiroth, huh?” She asks quietly. “Isn’t it hard to become a SOLDIER?”_

_He pulls a leg to his chest to drape his arm across it, her words reminding him of his own doubts in himself. “Yeah. So… I’ll be gone for a long time.”_

_“Guess so…” She says as she looks up at the sky. “Do you think you’ll be in all the papers?”_

_“I-I don’t know,” He responds with a shrug. “I’ll try.”_

_“Then promise me one thing,” She says as she turns her head to look at him. “Promise me that when we’re older and you’re a famous SOLDIER, if I’m ever in danger or need help, promise you’ll come and save me.”_

_“Huh?” He looks at her in surprise at her request._

_“That’s what heroes do.” She smiles at him and tilts her head. Her brown eyes are big, wide with youth and swimming with hope. “Please?”_

_He blinks and looks away from her and up at the sky. He opens his mouth to respond, but before he can, the stars and Tifa at his side fade away to nothingness._

Cloud groaned when he was woken up rudely by his pillow vibrating under his head. He slapped his hand blindly over his mattress until he found the cause of his annoyance—his ringing phone. He squinted his eyes open against the brightness of the day and stabbed at the screen until he hit the green button.

“Tifa?” He asked groggily. He didn’t even put his phone to his ear, just put it on speaker and dropped it lazily on his chest so he could close his eyes again.

“Hey!” She said on the other line. “Oh, I woke you up, didn’t I?”

“‘S fine,” Cloud said while yawning. “What’s up?”

“Well, I was wondering if you were busy today?” Tifa asked.

That made Cloud open his eyes. He looked up at the ceiling blearily and frowned. “...Why?” He asked slowly and cautiously.

“That lantern festival is happening today,” Tifa told him. “And… I was wondering if you wanted to go?”

“...With you?” Cloud asked. It was Saturday. Cloud couldn’t even remember the last time he saw Tifa on a weekend—she almost always had plans with her other friends; in other words, plans that didn’t include him.

“Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge are coming, too!” Tifa said quickly. “It’ll be a whole group thing.”

Cloud suppressed a groan. After running into Jessie while leaving Aerith’s house and the strange things she’d said, the last thing he wanted was to be stuck with her together with Tifa. He was afraid of what she’d say or do or what creative ways she’d find to make his life miserable. He’d gone out of his way to make sure he didn’t cross paths with her at school the entire week. But fortunately, he didn’t have to scramble to find an excuse to get out of it. 

“I can’t today, I have plans,” He told Tifa.

“You do?” Tifa asked in disbelief. Then, quieter, she asked, “...With who...?”

“Just a friend,” Cloud said. “You don’t know them.”

“Oh, well… Can you postpone them?” Tifa asked him, and he could hear the disappointment in her voice. “It’d be so fun if you came with me and our friends.”

“Sorry, but I can’t,” Cloud told her, deciding to not inform her that calling the others _his_ friends was a bit of a stretch. “Maybe next time.”

“Okay,” Tifa said, sounding rather dejected. “Well, if you finish early, we’ll probably be there all night, so...”

“I’ll swing by if I can,” Cloud said. “Promise.”

“Okay, I’m gonna hold you to that,” Tifa said, thankfully now sounding a bit happier. “I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, see you,” Cloud replied. He picked up his phone as Tifa hung up and unlocked it. Already there were three unread messages waiting for him.

Aerith: _Good morning~_

Aerith: _I’m so excited for today!!!_

Aerith: _Do you want to meet at 1?_

Cloud smiled to himself and quickly typed out a message back to her.

Cloud: **_how many cups of coffee have you had already?_ **

Aerith: _Just 2! Why? :P_

Cloud laughed this time and sent her back a text that her suggested meeting time was fine with him. He pushed his covers off of him and sat up in an attempt to wake himself up more before he got up to get ready. It wasn’t early, but he’d stayed up late the night before so despite sleeping in, he was feeling pretty groggy. Maybe he’d develop Aerith’s coffee habit—it certainly did sound tempting to go downstairs and have a cup.

But… He was stuck for a moment, thinking of his dream, of the new memory he’d witnessed. So, he and Tifa had known each other just as long as they did now. And they were close as kids—well, that’s what it seemed like anyway. He wondered if Tifa was her same popular self then, as well, and if he was still left behind because of that.

Well, not anymore, he supposed. Tifa was making an effort to include him more and more lately, and whether it was because she was worried he was going crazy or because she genuinely wanted to spend time with him, he was grateful. He felt a little bad having to reject her when she asked—she seemed to always coincidentally collide with his plans with Aerith. But it wasn’t like he and Tifa ever spent that much time together to begin with, other than her training sessions. 

He was also curious about what he’d said; become a _soldier?_ He had no idea why he’d ever want to join the military but it was what he said after that bothered him now—Sephiroth. Such an odd name but odder still was the hollow feeling in Cloud’s chest at the thought of this person he knew nothing about. Even now, awake and in his normal life, just thinking about the name raised the hairs on his arms and sent a shiver down his spine. The feeling was only made worse at the knowledge that this mysterious person was apparently someone he’d looked up to.

As he sat on the edge of his bed, numbly lost in thought, his phone vibrating in his hand pulled him out of it.

Aerith: _okay. 3 cups._

Cloud snorted and shook his head. He stood up so he could begin getting ready and left the thoughts of the dream behind. There was no reason to waste his time on a person he didn’t even know. And besides, that Sephiroth couldn’t have been _all_ bad if Cloud had wanted to be just like him, right? The best of the best…

“Doesn’t matter,” Cloud reminded himself as he walked to the bathroom. Still, he got the same feeling he’d had the other night, when he heard that strange voice while walking home from Aerith’s. He tried to shake it off as best he could and focus on the day ahead.

He brushed his teeth and showered quickly so he could work on getting dressed. He put on a pair of dark jeans, ones without any holes and that weren’t too baggy, and then a t-shirt. He looked at himself in the mirror for a couple of minutes, then switched t-shirts. Then switched to a white button-up shirt, and then finally to a black one. He fidgeted with the shirt for a few minutes more—he’d never been on a date before. Not a real one, anyway. He didn’t know what was expected of him, how nice he should look, how nice _she_ would look.

He rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and left the first few buttons undone. A good middle ground, he thought, not too formal or too casual—at least, that was the impression he hoped he gave. He wasn’t very good with things like this. He nodded at himself and grabbed his wallet from his book bag that was lying on the floor and headed downstairs.

His mom was sitting in the living room, watching television on her day off. When she heard him come down the stairs, she called, “Good morning, sleepyhead!”

“Yeah, yeah…” Cloud walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. If he was lucky, he’d be able to get out of there without his mom asking him any questions.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t a very lucky guy. He should have just ran out the door at the last minute, he thought regretfully.

“You look nice,” His mother said as she walked into the kitchen. She leaned her hip against the counter and tilted her head. “Going somewhere?”

“Just going out for the day,” Cloud told her as he grabbed an apple to eat quickly. “With a… friend.”

“Tifa?” His mom asked. Though with the way she was smiling, Cloud had a feeling she already knew the answer.

“No, someone else,” Cloud shook his head as he took a bite of his apple. He wanted to leave it there, but his mom was giving him a piercing look and blocking his way out of the kitchen. Cloud knew she wouldn’t let him escape until she heard the details. He sighed and slowly said, “You don’t know her, but… Her name’s Aerith.”

His mom’s face brightened immediately like she had just heard the best news. “Is that who you’ve been texting all week?” She asked excitedly. “No wonder you’ve been in such a good mood lately! Oh, Aerith is such a lovely name, too!”

“I-I guess,” Cloud said with a nod. He tried to walk past her. “Can I—”

“So, where are you two going on your date?” His mother asked, stepping in his way.

“We’re not—!” Cloud started before promptly shutting himself up because he _wa_ s going on a date with Aerith, and while sometimes he had trouble admitting to certain things like this, he wasn’t a liar. He turned his head away from his mom’s overly happy face and threw his apple core in the trash. “We’re just hanging out.”

His mom laughed and grabbed his arm to pull his sleeve down. “Well, I think it’s very nice,” She told him as she began working on the other sleeve. “Though, there’s going to be a lot of broken hearts once you’re off the market.”

“...Don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” Cloud mumbled.

“Oh, don’t be modest Cloud,” She said as she fixed his collar next. “There must be a line of girls that are hounding you.”

“Not that I know of,” He replied, his cheeks hot. “You’re just saying that ‘cause you’re my mom.”

“Don’t doubt me so much,” She patted his shoulders when she finished buttoning up his shirt and smiled at him. “There, now you’ll look more like a gentleman for her.”

Cloud shook his head and stepped back from his mom before she could try to flatten his wild hair or something. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Is she going to come here? Can I meet her?” She asked. “What kinds of things does she like? Oh, and you should invite her over for din—”

“ _Mom,_ ” Cloud groaned as he finally walked around her. “I just met her. It’s not like you need to plan a wedding.” Though that wasn’t _entirely_ true, he decided not to share the extended truth with her.

His mom laughed behind him and followed him towards the door. “I know, I know, it’s just nice! I’m happy for you, Cloud.” She grabbed Cloud’s arm to stop him, pulled him so he turned back around to look at her. “She must be very sweet for you to like her so much.”

Cloud nodded once. “Yeah, she’s… nice.”

His mom smiled at him. “Well, I can’t wait to meet her. _Eventually._ ” She grabbed her purse by the door and dug through it before pulling out some cash to hand him. “And here.”

“I have money saved up, I don’t need—” Cloud tried to say, but his mom shoved the money into his hand. He sighed and obediently pocketed the cash. “...You know that makes me feel like a little kid.”

“You _are_ a little kid,” His mother said while patting his cheek. “You’ll always be my little boy, no matter how big you get. And I want you to have fun, so go and have fun!”

“Thanks, mom,” Cloud told her with a nod. He put on his shoes—a cleaner pair of sneakers than the ones he usually wore to school—and walked out the door. Once outside, he took a moment to undo what his mother had done to his shirt, then pulled out his phone to check the meeting spot Aerith had chosen. It was about a ten minute walk from his house, somewhat between his and Aerith’s homes, so he turned down the street and began his commute.

When he arrived, he saw that the spot she’d chosen was a park. On a Saturday afternoon, it was bustling with families out enjoying the good weather. Cloud walked down the path into the park and looked around for her, but he didn’t see her at first. She was lost in the sea of happy kids and parents running all over the place.

“Cloud!”

He turned at the sound of her voice and it felt like his heart had gone still in his chest for a moment before picking back up at double speed. She was wearing a light dress that had a dipped neckline and a pattern of pale pink flowers. The hem flowed in the wind just past her knees as she ran towards him and her shoulders were bare, the dress held up just with thin straps. She was also wearing a pair of heeled sandals, which put her height closer to Cloud’s, and had a small purse hung over her shoulder.

“Hey!” Aerith said with a happy smile once she was in front of him. “You made it!”

“H-Hey…” Cloud said slowly. She was also wearing a bit of makeup, it seemed, her eyes looking even bigger and greener with her fanned lashes and her blushed cheeks looking a bit rounder than usual. He cleared his throat and tried to speak. “Y-You look… really nice…”

“Thanks!” Aerith said as she looked down at her dress. She gestured to Cloud. “You do, too! It feels like a treat seeing you outside of your boring school uniform.”

“Uh… y-yeah…” Cloud said dumbly as he continued to stare at her. Aerith was beautiful. Well, she was _always_ beautiful, always naturally pretty, but outside of her school uniform, seeing her like this—she looked stunning.

“Cloud!” Aerith said in a scolding tone as she stepped up closer to him, pouting at his blatant gawking.

Cloud took a step back from her and swallowed. He sucked in a sharp breath of air to compose himself and nodded his head. “E-Excuse me.”

Aerith just smiled at him and bit into her glossy bottom lip like she was holding back a laugh. So she _did_ like turning him into a stuttering mess, he realized. “Well, come on then! The day awaits!” She said happily.

She turned to walk out of the park, her arms swinging freely by her side as she hummed a random tune. The back of her dress dipped down, the exposed pale expanse of her skin covered with criss-crossing thin straps that connected to the ones over her shoulders. Her hair was mostly the same as usual, except instead of simply tying half of it back, she had braided two front sections and secured at them at the back of her head with a pink ribbon.

Cloud found himself staring at that pink ribbon over her braids as she walked away from him, and then everything around him cut out and his vision went hazy, like an old film was covering it.

She was walking away from him, between the trees, towards a bright light, and _no, he can’t let her go_ —

“Cloud??”

Cloud blinked and saw Aerith in front of him, much closer than before. She blinked at him, and then lowered her eyes. Cloud followed her gaze and saw that he was holding her hand in his. He’d ran after her, he realized, and grabbed her hand to stop her from walking away from him. He dropped her hand immediately and took a step back, scratched the back of his neck awkwardly and looked away from her.

“Sorry,” He murmured.

“It’s okay,” Aerith shook her head and leaned in a bit to look at him closer. He could tell she was worried, so he returned his gaze to her, meeting her eyes in silent reassurance. She smiled at him. “You know, you can hold my hand if you want. This is a date, after all.”

“H-Huh?” Cloud’s throat felt dry. 

Aerith just laughed and turned to begin walking once again. “Come on!”

Cloud followed her this time, fell into step beside her but didn’t take her hand again. Not yet. “So, what was the idea for today you wouldn't tell me?” He asked her as they walked, hoping to move on from his own awkward behavior. She’d told him as they made their plans that she knew what they were going to do, but kept the information to herself because she wanted to surprise him.

“Well,” Aerith began. “There’s a lantern festival! Have you gone to it before?”

Cloud nodded. The festival Tifa had invited him to. “I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never been.”

“I love it,” Aerith told him. “I go every year! And now, I finally have someone to join me!”

Cloud looked at her and frowned at her word’s implications. “You—?”

“Come on!” Aerith grabbed his arm before he could speak and pulled him down the sidewalk quicker. “I’m starving, and there’s always amazing food there!”

“Hey, slow down!” Cloud called as he followed her. “You’re gonna break an ankle in those shoes, y’know.”

“It’s okay!” Aerith looked back at him with a sunny grin. “I have you to take care of me if I— _whoa_!”

She’d accidentally stepped off the curb during her moment of not paying attention. From where she was still holding onto him, Cloud yanked his arm back and pulled her towards him before she could twist her ankle, and she stumbled forward against his chest. His other arm wrapped around her instinctively to ensure she was safe, pressing her even closer to him.

She lifted her head and looked up at him. “You... seem to do that a lot,” She said quietly in the small space between them.

“Just ‘cause you keep almost killing yourself instead of paying attention,” Cloud told her, frowning.

“Well, why do I need to when you’re so good at this,” Aerith asked teasingly. “Have you ever considered being a bodyguard?”

Cloud released her and took a step back. “You’re killin’ me here,” He sighed.

Aerith laughed happily. “Oh, I’d better stop then. I can’t have you dying before the day is done!”

The two began walking again. “What do you do at this festival?” Cloud asked after a few moments of silence.

“Well, during the day, it’s mostly just a lot of walking around and eating,” Aerith explained to him. “And there are some games, too! And then once the sun sets, everyone gets a lantern. You make a wish, then let it go and it floats up to the sky. It’s _so_ beautiful!”

“You said you go every year?” Cloud asked her.

“That’s right!” Aerith nodded.

“So… What do you usually wish for?” Cloud asked while giving her a sidelong glance.

“Nice try, mister!” Aerith shook her head. “If I tell you, it won’t come true!”

“I thought that was just for like… birthdays,” Cloud said with a shrug.

“Then, what will _you_ wish for?” Aerith asked him, looking back at him. “I’ll tell you if you tell me.”

“Not sure yet,” Cloud responded. “How about we tell each other after we make them?”

Aerith giggled behind her hand. “Deal.”

They continued walking, Aerith now being more careful, and as they did, the streets became more and more crowded with people also heading to the festival. Eventually, they reached a closed off road that was lined with stalls and packed with people. There were many families, some people on dates, some groups of friends. Aerith, not wanting to waste a second more, grabbed Cloud’s hand and pulled him into the thick of the festival.

“It’s popular,” Cloud said as he followed behind Aerith, the two of them squeezing between the crowd.

“I know, I’m surprised you’ve never been!” Aerith said over her shoulder. Eventually, once they were a bit deeper in, the street widened and the crowd thinned out a bit, allowing them to walk side by side. Neither let go of the other’s hand, though.

“It’s not really my scene,” Cloud told Aerith. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked around.

“Well, what do you think of it now that you’re here?” Aerith asked, standing up on her tiptoes a bit to get a good look at Cloud.

He looked back at her and felt the dread of being in such a place melt away. Normally, Cloud would avoid such crowded areas like this like the plague, but with Aerith, it wasn’t so awful. He actually found himself looking forward to seeing how she enjoyed the festival. “It’s… Not too bad,” He said casually. He looked around at the food stalls nearby. “Hey, you said you were hungry, right?”

“Starving,” Aerith bemoaned while rubbing her stomach. “Come on, let’s get some grub!”

With the hand holding Cloud’s, Aerith tugged him in the direction of the stalls. She walked past a few with her finger tapping her lip in thought until she found one she deemed acceptable and stepped up to it. “What is it?” Cloud asked.

“Who knows?” Aerith said with a laugh. “But it looks delicious! Two, please!”

Cloud pulled some money from his pocket to pay the vendor as Aerith took their food, unfortunately needing to let go of Cloud’s hand in order to do so. Once the money was exchanged, she handed Cloud’s portion to him and the two continued strolling down the street while eating their snacks. She was right, it was delicious. It was something fried, smothered in a sauce that was probably dangerously unhealthy but tasted great. Aerith hummed happily beside him as she ate.

“Oh, they have games, too!” Aerith told him as they reached an area more heavily populated by children. “Like carnival games and stuff, where you can win prizes.”

“Wanna try?” Cloud asked as he tossed his trash in a nearby bin.

“Are you good at these kinds of games?” Aerith asked, also tossing her garbage. “I suck at them so I’ve given up. They’re all rigged, y’know.”

“What prize do you want?” Cloud asked, lifting his chin to gesture to the booths.

Aerith’s face brightened in excitement and she looked around. “Oh!” She cried before running off.

“H-Hey!” Cloud called as he ran after her. He caught up to her next to a bottle toss booth, where she was looking up at one of the stuffed animals with mesmerized eyes.

“I want _this!_ ” She said excitedly while pointing at it.

“What… Is it?” Cloud asked as he looked at the thing. It didn’t look like any animal he’d ever heard of—it was a small yellow bird, its rounded belly stuffed so chubby it was almost comical, with soft spikes on its head that Cloud assumed were meant to be feathers.

“I don’t know, but it’s adorable!” Aerith said, her hands clasped by her cheek as she looked at the strange creature with adoration. She turned her eyes to Cloud and her grin grew. “And it looks like you!”

“Wha—?” Cloud looked at the bird-thing again and opened his mouth to argue her point, but after getting a second look at its yellow, spiky head, he shut his lips and frowned instead. She wasn’t _entirely_ wrong.

Aerith laughed and shook her head. “Don’t look so upset, it’s cute!” She told him.

Cloud sighed and turned to the man waiting on the other side of the booth. “You sure that’s the one you want?” Cloud asked her.

“Only if you can win it,” Aerith said with a sheepish smile. “It’s not a big deal.”

Cloud shook his head and slapped some cash down. It was absolutely a big deal if _she_ wanted it. The attendee handed Cloud three balls that he had to throw to knock over a stack of bottles. “I’m pretty good at stuff like this, y’know,” He told Aerith as he tossed one of the balls in the air and caught it again.

“Let’s see it then, Mr. Confident,” Aerith said while gesturing grandly to the bottles.

Cloud narrowed his eyes at the bottles in front of him and squared his shoulders. He brought his hand back and, after a moment of checking his aim, threw the ball. He watched in embarrassment and mild horror as the ball flew too high, missing the bottles entirely and whacking into the back of the stall. He watched the ball fall pathetically to the ground and hung his head with a defeated sigh. That’s what he got for being too overconfident, he thought.

“Oh, it’s okay,” Aerith said while patting his arm in comfort, though when he lifted his eyes to look at her, he saw that she was biting her lips to suppress her laughter.

Cloud stood up straight again and shook his head. “I still got two more tries,” He reminded her. He readied himself to throw again. He took a deep breath, pulled his arm back, and let the ball fly with as much strength as he could. This time, it hit the bottles square in the middle and they went tumbling with a triumphant crash.

“Ah!” Aerith cried happily while jumping up and down beside him. She grabbed his arm to tug on it in her excitement. “You did it, you did it! That was so cool!”

Cloud shut his eyes and smirked, allowing himself a brief moment of confidence under her shower of praise. “I told you I was good at it,” He told her while raising one hand in a nonchalant shrug. “I just needed to get warmed up first.”

“Okay lovebirds, can you hurry it up?” The stall attendee asked, annoyed.

Aerith giggled behind her hand and pointed out the yellow bird. “That one, please.”

“Y’know if you win again, you can get a better prize,” The attendee said.

“Not necessary!” Aerith said with a grin. “That’s the one I want!”

“Okay…” The attendee shrugged and grabbed the bird for her.

She took it from him and squeezed it close to her chest with a happy sigh. “Oh, thank you, Cloud!” Aerith said while looking up at him with grateful, shining eyes. “I feel like I need to repay you now!”

Cloud shook his head. “Don’t mention it…” He mumbled. He jumped when he heard the attendee clear his throat rather obnoxiously, obviously wanting the two of them to move along. “C’mon,” He said.

He only hesitated half a moment before he took Aerith’s hand to lead her away. Aerith didn’t mind at all and followed him while lifting up the bird in her other hand like it was flying through the air. She giggled and held it next to Cloud’s head. “I’m gonna name him after you,” She said.

“Hoo boy,” Cloud shook his head. “Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten that for you.”

“Okay, okay,” Aerith laughed as she put the bird in her purse, so just its head stuck out a bit. “I won’t torture you any longer.”

“We’ll see,” Cloud responded.

“Hey, that’s mean!” Aerith tugged on Cloud’s hand so hard, he was forced to bend down a bit. His eyes widened as he looked at her, suddenly much closer than before, and Aerith smiled innocently.

“S-Sorry…” Cloud said quietly while staring at her eyes. This close, he could see flecks of darker green speckled throughout them, a ring of hazel circling around her pupil.

Aerith laughed and released her grip on him, allowing him to stand up. “I’m just teasing,” She told him.

Cloud nodded at her. “You like to do that a lot, huh?”

“Just to you,” Aerith said with a nod. “You get so cute.”

A wave of heat rushed to Cloud’s cheeks. He looked away from her to hide the possible redness creeping over his skin and viewed the festival around them. “So, should we, uh… Do whatever it is you do here?”

Aerith giggled but thankfully didn’t make any other comments that would reduce Cloud into even more of an idiot than he already felt. She hooked her arm around Cloud’s and pulled him in another direction. “Let’s go this way! There’s usually people selling stuff over here.”

Cloud followed obediently. They walked leisurely up and down the streets of the festival, stopping every now and then to look at what vendors were selling—Aerith bought a set of matching blue and pink flower keychains for them—and getting more food as the afternoon bled into evening. Time passed quickly without notice from either of them until Aerith pointed out that the sun was beginning to set, meaning it would soon be time to get their lanterns.

“It’s warm today,” Aerith noted absentmindedly as they walked back up the main street, to where the lanterns were being handed out.

Cloud nodded and looked around them. “You want ice cream?” He asked, pointing to a booth nearby.

Aerith regarded him with a slight smile and tilted her head. “Cloud, you like sweets?” She asked incredulously.

Cloud shrugged. “I don’t hate them,” He told her. “But I figured _you_ like ‘em.”

“Well, you figured correctly,” Aerith said with a nod. “Let’s go!”

The two of them worked their way through the crowd until they reached the booth selling ice cream. Cloud got a scoop of chocolate in a cup and Aerith a cone of strawberry. They made their way back to the main path and ate their treats in mostly silence.

At one point, Aerith held her cone up to Cloud. “Want to try it?” She asked him.

Cloud eyed the pink ball of ice cream and felt his stomach twist in nervousness. She was offering her ice cream to him, the ice cream she’d been licking all over, the ice cream he’d have to lick to try. He swallowed and shook his head. “I-It’s okay,” He said in a voice that was embarrassingly tight. He looked down at his own cup and lifted it to her. “Do you… Want some of mine?”

“I’ll have a bite!” Aerith said with a nod. She opened her mouth and Cloud stared at her open lips for a painfully long moment before realizing that she was waiting for him to feed her. With a slightly trembling hand, Cloud lifted a spoonful of his ice cream to her mouth. Her lips closed over the spoon and he pulled it back. “Mmm! That’s really good!” Aerith said with big eyes, her hand covering her mouth as she swallowed the bite.

Cloud nodded and looked down at his spoon. He felt rather childish, getting so worked up over simply sharing a bit of ice cream with her, but try as he might, he couldn’t suppress the tightness squeezing his chest. He scooped up another bite and shoved the spoon into his mouth.

Aerith spared him and didn’t bring up his nervous behavior, nor did she offer him any more of her ice cream. The two finished their cold sweets before they made it back to the lantern area. They stood in a crowded line for a little while before finally being handed their lanterns.

“Careful,” Aerith said as she took hers. “It’s already lit.”

Cloud nodded and took his as well, and then the two made their way through the crowd to find an area to release their lanterns when the time was right. “How does it float?” Cloud asked as he eyed his lantern.

“It’s like a little hot air balloon,” Aerith told him. “Or… Something like that. My mom told me that when I was a kid and I never questioned it.”

Cloud nodded and looked up at the darkening sky. “When are we supposed to let ‘em go?” He asked as he nodded towards a few lanterns that were already floating away.

“Whenever we want, really! Usually when it’s completely dark, everyone just lets them go at once,” Aerith explained. She turned to him and smiled. “Did you figure out what you’re going to wish for?”

“Oh…” Cloud shook his head. “I forgot. I wasn’t thinking about it.”

“Cloud!” Aerith pouted. “You better think of something quick, it’s almost time!”

“Uh,” Cloud frowned and looked up at the sky in thought. Honestly, he couldn’t think of anything he wanted badly enough to wish for it. He looked back at Aerith and she raised her brows to him, questioning. Well, maybe there was one thing.

After a short while, the sun was set and more and more people began releasing their lanterns into the dark sky. “Ready?” Aerith asked him with a smile. “Got your wish figured out?”

Cloud nodded, and together, the two of them released their lanterns. They both watched as they rose into the air with the rest of the lanterns, dotting the black sky like warm, bright stars. It was rather pretty, Cloud thought as he watched the lanterns float up and away, getting smaller and smaller. As he thought of his wish, he glanced from the sky to Aerith beside him.

She was watching the sky with a smile, the lights from the lanterns dancing in the green of her big, entranced eyes. The light shone against her pale skin, making it almost look like she was glowing from within. She lifted her hands to her chest, her fingers clasped together like she was in prayer, and lowered her head to make her wish.

Cloud heard static drown out the sounds of the festival around him. The sight of Aerith in front of him cut in and out with spikes of pain in his skull. His vision got grainy, a green haze spliced with blinding flashes obscuring everything around him. Like his limbs were being held down with heavy chains, Cloud slowly worked to lift his hand and pressed his fingers to his temple, his eyes shutting tight against the stabbing pain.

“Ah—ugh…” He groaned as he felt himself sway against it. And then he saw something against the back of his eyelids, images passing so quickly he could barely make sense of them. 

_Soft hands clasped together, smiling pink lips, a pink ribbon unravelling and a green orb bouncing down stone steps and dropping into a pool of crystalline water, those hands slipping, falling—_

“Cloud?”

Something touched the hand he had pressed against his head. He squinted his eyes open against the pain, and he saw aquamarine eyes looking coldly back at him, shining with something inhuman, the pupils sharp slits that pierced through Cloud.

His eyes flew open with a gasp and he took one step back, but what he now saw before him was Aerith, bent over slightly so she could look up at Cloud’s face. She was frowning up at him and he realized it was her hand touching his, a comforting hold that brought him back to reality. He took a shaky breath and swallowed the lump in his throat, unsure of exactly why his heart was racing or why his hands were tingling.

“Are you okay?” Aerith asked, whispering.

Cloud nodded and lowered his hand from his head, and Aerith held it in hers. “I’m fine,” He said, even though he didn’t fully believe it. His head was still throbbing dully and he felt dizzy as he tried to process what he had seen. But the problem was, he wasn’t sure what it had been—the vision had been quick and fractured and though he knew pieces of it were missing, he couldn’t even guess what the entire moment could have possibly been. All he knew was that it was Aerith he’d seen, and it left him scared and breathless.

Aerith was still frowning at him, unconvinced. She looked around the two of them, then squeezed his hand. “It’s kind of crowded here,” She said. “Why don’t we find somewhere a little more private?”

Cloud nodded. Being surrounded by all these people didn’t help the anxiety swirling in his gut, so he followed silently as Aerith pulled him through the crowd. She dipped down one of the side streets of the festival, where only a few people meandered since most were still enjoying the sights of the lanterns. Aerith found a bench and sat Cloud down on it before disappearing for a couple of minutes with a promise that she would be right back.

Cloud rested his elbows on his knees and held his head in his hand with a sigh. The headache was fading slowly, but the unease was still making him feel nauseous. He looked up when Aerith returned with two cups in her hands and she handed one to Cloud. He took it and looked down at the dark drink. “What is it?” He asked her.

“Hot chocolate,” Aerith smiled and sat at Cloud’s side. “I find that it makes everything better.”

Cloud nodded silently and took a sip. He sighed as he felt the warmth of the drink settle in his stomach, easing some of the tension in his body. “Sorry,” He told her once his heart rate had slowed a bit.

“You don’t have to apologize for anything,” She said. “But… Are you okay? You looked like you were upset or—or hurt or something.”

Cloud felt a stab of guilt in his chest at the sound of Aerith’s voice, ridden with worry. Cloud shook his head. “It was nothing,” He said quietly, because while he knew it probably was much more than nothing, there wasn’t anything more he could tell her; he wasn’t even sure what it was, himself. To appease her concern though, he continued, “Sometimes I get random headaches. Nothing to worry about.”

“That doesn’t sound like nothing,” Aerith murmured. “Does it still hurt now?”

Cloud looked at her and shook his head. “No, I feel better.” He lifted his cup and offered her a slight smile. “Thanks to you.”

His tactic worked and brought a smile back to Aerith’s face. “Good. I’m glad,” She told him. 

The two fell into silence then as they slowly drank their hot chocolates. Above them, the sky was dotted with paper lanterns floating overhead, drifting away slightly with the soft breeze. Cloud looked into his cup once it was empty, fiddled his nails against the edges of it.

“So… What did you wish for?” He asked her quietly.

“Ah, that’s right,” Aerith placed one hand on the bench behind her and leaned her weight back on it a bit. “Well… I wished that we’ll be happy.”

Cloud blinked at her. “Happy?”

“That’s right,” Aerith nodded. “That’s all I want, really. I mean, of course sometimes we’ll be upset or sad, that’s just life. But I never want those feelings to take over. No matter what happens or what I end up doing with my life, I just want to be happy.” She nudged his side a bit. “And you, too.”

“Thanks. So... what is it that you want to do?” Cloud asked her curiously. “Be an artist?”

Aerith hummed as she thought for a moment. “Well, I’m not sure yet,” She admitted. “There’s a lot of things I want to do. I want to be an artist, a florist, a teacher, a cook—even though I’m not very good at cooking.” She turned her head to look at him and smiled sheepishly. “I’ll have to live five lifetimes just to do all the things I want.”

Cloud’s eyes grew as he regarded her. “Um…” He swallowed and looked back down at his cup. “Do you... believe in that kind of stuff? Like… Being reborn and living multiple lives and… whatever?”

“Of course I do,” Aerith answered without hesitation, and Cloud looked up at her in surprise. She smiled at him and turned her eyes back up to the lit sky. “Actually… I get this feeling we’ve already met before, you know? Maybe because we knew each other in another life.”

Cloud’s mouth went dry and he turned his body slightly towards her. “R-Really?” He asked.

“I know, it’s so weird,” Aerith laughed and shook her head. “Just forget I said that. It probably makes me sound creepy or something.”

“No, it’s not weird,” Cloud said immediately, making Aerith look at him. He swallowed and nodded at her. “I… I feel it too.”

Aerith’s lips parted slightly as she looked at Cloud like she was surprised he would agree with her. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and tilted her head. “So then, you think we live more than one life, too?” She asked him.

Cloud thought of his dreams, the memories from a life that was not this one, the moments spent with Aerith before he’d ever even met her. He nodded at her. “Yeah. I do.”

Aerith bit into her lower lip as her smile grew, her cheeks glowing pink under the warm light of the lanterns and the booths around them, and she looked down at her empty cup. She cleared her throat and pointed to Cloud’s cup. “Finished?” She asked.

He nodded and she took the cup from him. She stood up from the bench and found a nearby trashcan to throw the cups into, and then turned around and skipped back to Cloud. As she did though, she suddenly stumbled with a yelp of pain and took a couple of limping steps forward.

“What is it?” Cloud asked, up from the bench and at her side in a heartbeat with his hand clasped around her arm.

“Oh, ow, ow, _ow…_ ” Aerith groaned as she hobbled to the bench with Cloud’s help. Once she was seated, she stuck her foot out and gingerly pulled the strap around her ankle down, revealing an angry red spot of skin that had been rubbed raw. She hung her head with a sigh. “Ugh, of course I’d get a blister.”

“Has that been hurting for a while?” Cloud asked as he sat beside her, concerned as he looked at the point of pain. It looked pretty bad.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Aerith told him while shaking her head. “I was able to ignore it, but I guess the skin broke. Just my luck… And I don’t see anywhere that sells bandaids around here…”

Cloud gestured to her feet. “Take your shoes off.”

Aerith looked at Cloud and narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m not quite so desperate that I’m willing to walk home barefoot just yet, Cloud,” She told him teasingly.

“No,” Cloud stood up from the bench so he could kneel in front of her. He carefully slipped her shoe off her injured foot and then removed the other, and while he could feel her looking at him in shock, she didn’t stop him. “If you try to walk home, you’ll probably end up bleeding and crying in pain, even if you do get a bandaid. I’ll carry you.”

“My hero,” Aerith said in an overly false enamoured voice.

Cloud raised his eyes to look at her. “I can still rescind my offer.”

“Got it, shutting up now,” Aerith said with a grin and a wink.

With her shoes hanging from his fingers, Cloud turned his back to her so she could climb on. She carefully placed herself over his back so her dress wouldn’t slip up and Cloud hooked his arms under her knees. Once her arms were wrapped around his neck, he carefully stood up and began walking towards the exit of the festival.

“I must say, this wasn’t how I expected the night to go,” Aerith said over his shoulder. “I’m not too heavy, right?”

“Nope,” Cloud answered.

“If you say so,” Aerith replied. “But if I get too heavy, you can—”

“Cloud?”

Cloud raised his head and gulped when he saw Tifa standing in front of him a bit down the street. Her brows were furrowed in confusion as she looked at him and Cloud frowned at her. Right, he thought. It probably didn’t look good for him to be leaving the very festival she invited him to…

“Tifa,” He said to her. “I—”

Aerith’s head poked out from behind Cloud’s and Cloud could hear the friendly smile in her voice as she said, “Hi! Your name’s Tifa? I’m Aerith!”

“Uh… Hi,” Tifa nodded at her but didn’t look any happier. If anything, she looked even more upset.

“Tifa,” Cloud tried again while taking a step towards her.

Tifa shook her head and quickly walked past them. “I have to go, everyone’s waiting. Nice to meet you.” She nodded to Aerith as she went, and Cloud turned to watch her disappear into the festival crowd.

With a sigh, Cloud slowly turned to continue their walk. Aerith was silent on his back until they were outside of the festival streets, walking down the quiet sidewalk. “Hey, Cloud?” She asked. He hummed in response. “This might be weird to ask, but... Is Tifa like… your girlfriend, or something?”

“What? No!” Cloud cried immediately, turning his head slightly to look at Aerith over his shoulder. He'd heard her ask that same question before; was it something Aerith oddly wondered in every world?

Aerith smiled a little sheepishly. “Sorry, I knew it was a dumb question,” She said. “It’s just that… she seemed really upset.”

“That was —something else. Tifa is… it’s not like that. At all,” Cloud shook his head and looked forward again. He licked his dry lips and then quietly, hesitantly said, “Besides, I mean… I’m on a date with _you,_ aren’t I?”

Cloud waited while holding his breath for Aerith to respond. It took a moment, but eventually she rested her chin on his shoulder. “So, does that mean you’ve decided?” She asked.

“Huh? Decided what?” Cloud asked, confused.

“Decided if this is a _payment_ date, or… not,” Aerith explained.

“Oh, um…” Cloud swallowed and cleared his throat. “What is it if it’s not?”

“Then,” Aerith began. “It’s just a normal date, off the books. Neither of us get anything extra for it. It’s just two people spending time together because… they like each other.”

She said the last few words quietly, but her voice was right against Cloud’s ear, her breath warm against his skin. Cloud’s heart stuttered in his chest and his ears burned but slowly he managed to say, “T-Then it’s just… a normal date. I mean if you… If you’re okay. With that. I mean...”

Aerith giggled quietly in his ear, and Cloud stopped walking abruptly when he felt soft lips press against his cheek in a chaste kiss.

Cloud turned his head quickly to look back at her in surprise, but Aerith just smiled at him like she was unaware of what had him acting like he was. Under a nearby street light though, he could see her cheeks were flushed more than just from the makeup she was wearing.

“Something wrong?” She asked quietly, lifting her brows.

Cloud shook his head dumbly and felt an overwhelming urge to close the short distance between them and kiss her for real. Before he could, though, he lost his courage and turned his head away from her. He stared down at his feet as he continued walking, the area she had kissed burning like her lips were flames.

“Um, and…” He said, once he was able to get a proper breath. “Y’know, none of them have to actually be a _payment_ or… whatever. They can all just be normal. Like what you said.” He wanted it to be as clear as possible to her, he needed her to know that he wanted to spend time with her just to spend time with her. It wasn’t a job, he didn’t need to do anything, she didn’t need to repay him. He just wanted to go on dates with her. Because… he liked her.

And she liked him, apparently.

“But what about when you help me with the flowers?” Aerith asked with her chin once again rested on Cloud’s shoulder.

“It’s your lucky day,” He told her. “I just started offering my delivery services for free, for flowers specifically.”

Aerith laughed softly and nodded. “My lucky day, indeed,” She concurred. She lifted herself up a little bit so she could lean more over his shoulder to look at him. “I’m still not too heavy, right?”

“No, but if you keep shifting around like that…” Cloud muttered as he tried to fix the hold he had on her.

“Oh, sorry,” Aerith settled herself normally against his back again and clasped her hands loosely in front of his chest. “And speaking of the deliveries, you’re still coming with me this week, right?”

Cloud nodded once. “Yep.”

“And what about next weekend?” Aerith asked. “You know, for another one of these _normal_ dates.”

“Oh… yeah,” Cloud nodded again. “Yeah, next weekend works. Um… I’ll plan something this time.”

“Oh _really?_ Have some ideas already?” She asked.

Cloud thought for a moment over some options and then nodded his head. “Yep. Got a good one.”

“Oh, what is it?” Aerith squeezed her arms a little tighter like she was trying to physically get the information out of him.

“Not telling,” Cloud replied.

“Huh? Why not?” Aerith asked.

“You didn’t tell me what we were gonna do today,” Cloud told her. “So I’m not gonna tell you what we’re gonna do next week.”

“Hmph, fine then,” Aerith said. “Then _next_ next week, I’ll plan and not tell you again!”

“This is an odd system,” Cloud said with a shrug.

Aerith giggled and squeezed her arms around him tighter again, this time in what felt like a hug. She looked up when he turned a corner. “Wow, you remember how to get to my house already?”

“I have a good sense of direction,” Cloud responded. His steps slowed a bit as he walked, unwilling to let the night end quickly, but it still took no time at all before they were in front of her house.

Reluctantly, Cloud pushed her gate open and walked down the path, between the many flowers until he reached her front door. He knelt down to carefully set her down and handed her shoes over. She took them with a grateful smile and nodded at him.

“Thanks for carrying me all the way home,” She said. “Today was a lot of fun.”

“Yeah,” Cloud agreed. He felt like he should say something else, but when he opened his mouth, all that came out was, “Um… You should get a bandaid.”

“Oh, right,” Aerith laughed as she glanced down at her blister. Her eyes got big like she had just had an epiphany and she looked up at Cloud. “Hey, I just remembered. You never told me what you wished for.”

Cloud swallowed. “Oh, um—”

The light in front of her door turned on and from the other side of it, she and Cloud heard her mother call, “Aerith? Is that you?”

“Yeah mom, be right there!” Aerith called back before turning back to Cloud. “Guess that’s my cue. I’ll text you?”

Cloud nodded at her. “Yeah, sounds good.”

“I’ll see you later,” She said as she opened her door. “Good night, Cloud.”

“Night, Aerith,” He said while giving her a small smile.

She hesitated for a moment, allowing the two of them to simply look at each other in a reluctance to say goodbye. Finally, she waved to him and shut the door and Cloud turned around to begin his walk home. He hadn’t even turned off her street before his phone was buzzing with a text notification.

Aerith: _Hey_

Cloud smiled to himself and shook his head while typing back.

Cloud: **_hey_ **

Aerith: _Did you have a good day?_

Cloud: **_yeah. Great day actually_ **

Aerith: _What a coincidence, I had a great day too! Tell me about it?_

Cloud had his eyes glued to his phone screen basically the entire walk home as he and Aerith texted back and forth. He didn’t lift his eyes until he was almost to his house, and when he did, he was surprised to see Tifa in front of his home, leaning against the light pole and looking down at her shoes with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

Cloud shoved his phone in his pocket as he approached her. She looked up at him when she heard his footsteps but said nothing. “What are you doing here?” Cloud came to a stop in front of her. “I thought you were gonna be at the festival with everyone.”

“Yeah, well…” Tifa shrugged. “I just… Wasn’t in the mood.”

“So… Why are you _here?_ ” Cloud asked, confused as to why Tifa would come to his house and not go to her own home.

Tifa smiled to herself and shook her head. “I don’t even know,” She said quietly. “I left the festival and just… ended up here.”

“Listen, Tifa,” Cloud said with a sigh. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was going to the festival, I should have—”

“I’m not upset you went to the festival, I’m upset that you didn’t tell me about—” Tifa bit down into her lower lip. She took a long, deep breath, and then lifted her eyes to look at Cloud steadily. “I thought you said you didn’t know her.”

Cloud furrowed his brows in confusion. “Huh?”

“Aerith,” Tifa said. “She was the girl we saw when we were on the roof, wasn’t she? The one you were staring at?”

Cloud frowned even more. “I wasn’t—”

“You _said_ you didn’t know her,” Tifa interrupted.

“I-I didn’t know her _then_ ,” Cloud explained. “How did you even know it was her?”

Tifa averted her eyes from him. “...I saw you two walking home the other day, after I finished practice. I recognized the skirt. You had a bike?”

“Oh…” Cloud swallowed and looked at the ground with a nod. “Yeah, that was… But really, I didn’t know her when we saw her on the roof.”

“So… How _do_ you two know each other then?” Tifa asked him.

“I bumped into her the other day and…” He shrugged. “I help her. She helps me… On and on it goes.”

“And… That’s all there is to it?” Tifa asked, looking at Cloud again while tilting her head. “Sure there isn’t something else going on?”

“Um…” Cloud looked away from her, unsure of why he was unable to answer that yeah, there _was_ more going on. He felt an odd sense of deja-vu.

Tifa shook her head and pushed herself away from the light. “She seems nice,” She said quietly.

“Yeah, she is,” Cloud nodded. “I think you’d like her… if you got to know her.”

“Maybe,” Tifa responded. She offered an unconvincing smile and turned away. “Sorry, I don’t know what got into me. I shouldn’t have bothered you.”

Cloud took a step towards her. “Tifa—”

She turned to look at him over her shoulder. “I’ll see you at school on Monday, okay?”

She didn’t wait for a response before she was walking away from him. Cloud waited until she turned off his street before walking into his house with a sigh. Fortunately, his mom wasn’t downstairs and he was able to get to his room without having to go through her questions of the day. He collapsed onto his bed without even changing out of his clothes, the joy from the day diminished extraordinarily quickly, so now he just felt exhausted. He shut his eyes as he felt a headache coming on.

_He’s facing a cold steel wall. He places one hand against it and leans in close—he can’t see her, but he can sense her there, just in front of him, the silver metal the only thing separating them._

_As if she can sense him as well, he hears her ask tentatively, “Cloud? Are you there?”_

_“Aerith!” He cries, in relief or in fear, he’s not sure which. His hand curls into a fist over the wall; he wants to see her, to confirm with his own eyes that she’s there and okay. “You safe?”_

_“Yeah, I’m alright,” Aerith tells him. She pauses for a beat, and even through the metal dividing them, he knows she is smiling. “I knew you’d come for me.”_

_His shoulders slump and his lips even quirk up in a smile as most of the tension drains from his muscles. They are still in danger, still trapped and at a severe disadvantage, but her hope in him makes him feel a bit more confident. Even with the odds stacked against them, she feels like a healing wind that gives him the energy he needs to keep fighting._

_“Hey, I am your bodyguard, ain’t I?” He asks her. That’s right, he had to protect her. If anyone ever tries to harm her, he will be there. He will stop them. He will be by her side, always._

_She laughs quietly on the other side of the wall. “That’s right. For one date, right? I still need to repay you._

_As his heart lifts at the prospect, he hears a shift behind him. “Oh… I get it,” A familiar voice says._

_“Tifa? Tifa’s there too?” Aerith asks._

_He looks over his shoulder at Tifa and watches as she turns a cold shoulder to him, rolls over on her cot and faces the wall. “_ Excuse _me,” She says harshly. He thinks that will be the end of it, but then, with the same bitter voice, she says, “I have a question, Aerith.”_

_“...What is it?” Aerith asks hesitantly._

_“Does the Promised Land really exist?” Tifa asks._

_He turns to look back at the metal wall as if he could see Aerith through it. Promised Land… he wonders about it. Where could it be, and what is it like? He imagines, for a moment, that if Aerith could find it, it would be a bright and sunny place, surrounded by beautiful yellow flowers._

_But as he awaits her answer to find out more, the edges of his vision get dark, and the silver wall disappears from his view._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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	6. firsts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud and Aerith spend a lazy afternoon together and while Cloud's feelings grow, so do his worries for the dreams he continues to have.

When the day ended and they were dismissed from class for the weekend, Cloud slowly packed up his bag while eyeing Tifa as she walked out the door, surrounded by her many friends. He hadn’t seen much of her outside of class the last couple of weeks, not since he met her waiting outside of his house. Her attempts to include him more stopped abruptly; she no longer met him to walk to school, didn’t try to eat lunch with him, she hadn’t even once asked him to sit in on her training sessions.

Cloud felt bad for some reason, though he didn’t know exactly why. He wasn’t the one trying to push her away, he thought. And although he knew she was upset about it, it wasn’t like he did anything wrong by hanging out with Aerith… right? After all, she hung out with her friends without him almost every day of the many years they’d known each other. He had no idea what could have upset her so much, and at this point, he was too afraid to ask.

But any time he pondered his predicament with Tifa, there was a voice bothering him in the back of his mind, one that told him that she was upset because she was jealous. Of what though, Cloud couldn’t entirely be sure of. All he knew was that, based on the couple of dreams he’d had that included both her and Aerith, while the two girls seemed like friends, it also seemed like there was something about Aerith that bothered Tifa, something she was envious of. Cloud didn’t know what it could be, though. Maybe she just didn’t like the idea of Cloud having other friends…?

Cloud sighed and threw his bag over one shoulder to leave the now empty classroom. He took the stairs slowly and strolled outside to the gate leisurely. He spied Tifa waving to her friends as she disappeared inside the school gym, but he didn’t make a move to join her. If she wanted him there, she would tell him. And he didn’t want to risk getting a kick in the face if she really _was_ upset about something.

Cloud shook his head and looked down at his shoes as he walked out of the gate.

“Well, look who it is. You come around here often?”

Cloud stopped when he heard the familiar, teasing voice and looked up. Aerith was leaning against the school wall with her hands crossed over her chest, smiling at him in amusement with twinkling eyes. She was in her bright uniform, which she now wore with white, knee-high socks to combat the weather that was steadily growing colder. Her school bag was waiting on the ground next to her, stuffed full.

Cloud avoided a student passing by and then stepped up closer to her. He couldn’t really help it when he smiled slightly at her—she was always a welcome sight. “What are you doing here?” He asked.

“Waiting,” Aerith said simply.

Cloud blinked at her. “For... what?”

Aerith’s eyes got a little big as she looked at him and she lifted her brows like she was waiting for him to say something else. When he didn’t, she ducked her head and laughed behind her hand and Cloud felt his face flush a bit. She lifted her eyes back to him with a wide smile. “Are you busy right now?” She asked.

Cloud shook his head. “I was just heading home. What’s up?”

“Do you want to study with me?” Aerith asked while tilting her head. She gestured pitifully to her full bag. “I have a _ton_ of homework.”

“Sure,” Cloud nodded without pausing for a moment to think about it. Without waiting for another word, he stooped down to pick up her bag and hooked it over his other shoulder. “Geez, you got a library in here?”

Aerith smiled sheepishly and shrugged one shoulder. “Pretty much. But you don’t have to carry it! I know it’s heavy...”

“”S fine,” Cloud shook his head. “Where do you wanna go?”

“This way, please,” Aerith turned and began walking down the street and, as always, Cloud followed diligently.

Since the festival a couple of weeks ago, they’d seen each other a few times. Cloud joined her, as he’d promised, on each of her deliveries to the orphanage and the elderly home, and a couple of times helped her again with picking the flowers. Marlene wasn’t afraid of him anymore, thanks to some advice from Aerith to give her a flower as a show of good faith, and that seemed to make Barret like him a lot more. That, however, usually meant having to sit through Barret ranting about how humans were a virus to the planet while Aerith got to play with the kids, which wasn’t something Cloud necessarily disagreed with, but it got tiring hearing about it every time they visited.

And, as Cloud found out through a few more dreams, he’d known Barret as well. Only in the other life, he also was a warrior like Cloud with one gun for an arm, which both intrigued and terrified Cloud. They worked together, Cloud realized, and fought side by side as allies and friends. Though, it seemed no matter the life, Barret still had the same gruff exterior—especially towards Cloud—and he spewed the same rhetorics about the importance of the planet. As time went on, Cloud began to realize that some things would always be the same, no matter the differing circumstances.

Like Aerith.

They had their second “normal” date, as Aerith now affectionately called them, last weekend, and in between the times they could meet, they were constantly texting. Cloud wanted to see her everyday, to see her smile that was like an energy pill, so getting the spontaneous chance to spend this time with her was a pleasant surprise. And he’d get to see her tomorrow, as well, on yet another date.

Cloud still couldn’t believe that they were _dating._ He never thought he’d date anyone, much less someone as wonderful as Aerith. He still wondered what exactly she liked about him, but he didn’t question it—he didn’t want to risk her realizing that she was way out of his league and losing what he had.

“How was class?” Aerith asked as they walked down the sidewalk together.

“Same old shit,” Cloud said dryly.

Aerith laughed and shook her head. “That exciting, huh?”

“Oh yeah, real great stuff,” Cloud said sarcastically.

Aerith was quiet for a moment. She clasped her hands behind her back and looked up at the sky. “Is Tifa still…?”

“Tifa’s just… Tifa,” Cloud said as he frowned. He had shared a bit of Tifa’s cold behavior with Aerith, as it was easy to share things he’d normally want to keep private with her, and it made the girl worry for his friendship. “I never know what’s going on with her or what she’s thinking.”

“Hmm…” Aerith frowned for a moment while watching a cloud drift across the blue sky above them. She glanced at Cloud when she noticed him looking at her and immediately put a bright smile on her face. “The cafe I want to go to is just up here! It’s new."

“It will always be a mystery how you can find these places,” Cloud said quietly as he walked beside her.

“It’s not _that_ hard,” Aerith laughed. “Oh! Here it is!”

She quickened her steps and Cloud followed her into a plain white building. Inside was just as bare as the outside, a very minimalist style with only white walls and tables and some simple artwork decorating the walls. It seemed like a good place for studying, with few things to distract and simple, quiet music playing in the background. She found a table tucked away in a corner and Cloud handed her bag over and put his down in another chair.

“I’ll get the drinks,” He told her before walking over to the counter. He’d gotten pretty used to Aerith’s coffee obsession in their short time together and even knew her go-to drink at this point. He waited by the counter while the barista made their drinks and when they were finished, he carried the two glasses back to the table that was now covered in Aerith’s schoolbooks.

“Thanks,” Aerith said with a smile as she pulled one last book from her bag.

“You weren’t kidding about the ton of homework,” Cloud said while setting her drink down in one of the tiny amounts of free space on the covered table and taking his seat.

“It’s these stupid entrance exams,” Aerith moaned in anguish as she pitifully laid her head over her books. “They’re going to kill me. Like, seriously. If you don’t hear from me, it’s because my head finally exploded.”

Cloud’s eyes scanned the books lying open across the table. Right, he thought. Aerith was in her last year of high school. She’d be going off to university soon, after she graduated in the spring. “Where d’you think you’re gonna try to go?” Cloud asked her while sipping at his drink.

Aerith lifted and shook her head. “I have no idea,” She told him. She pulled her drink closer and took a sip, her shoulders slumped. “I think I want to stay close. Then I can live at home, you know? And there’s nowhere else I really want to live, anyway. But then I keep hearing that I should go far, get the _true_ experience and learn to live on my own, but… I just don’t know.”

She sighed heavily and took another drink while sadly flipping a page in one of her books. Cloud picked up his own glass to take a sip as he watched her. If he was being selfishly honest, he didn’t want Aerith to go to a university far away—he wanted her to stay close, so he could see her easily. But he knew, regardless of what he wanted, Aerith had to do what was best for her. If that meant moving somewhere else then… she had to do it. Cloud only hoped it wouldn’t be too far.

“Oh,” Aerith looked up from her books at Cloud and smiled apologetically. “I forgot, I needed to tell you something.”

“What’s up?” Cloud asked as he finally reached for his own bag to pull some of his own books out. He didn’t have even half the amount of work as Aerith, but he felt bad doing nothing while she suffered.

“I have to cancel our date tomorrow,” She said while frowning guiltily. “I have this art project due and I wrote down the wrong due date so I’ll need to work on it all weekend and—I’m sorry.”

Cloud shook his head, smiling slightly. “You don’t have to be sorry,” He told her. “But… Shouldn’t you be working on it _now_?”

“Well, I need to get this homework done sometime this weekend too, so I figured it would be best to get it out of the way now,” She said as she pushed some hair behind her ear. “And… I wanted a chance to see you if we couldn’t meet tomorrow.”

Cloud’s face burned hot from her flattering words. He cleared his throat and nodded while distracting himself with his books. “Well… T-Thanks.” He flipped through a book without paying attention to what pages he was looking at to avoid meeting her eyes out of embarrassment as he said, “Um, I… wanted to see you, too.”

Aerith smiled at him and pulled her lower lip between her teeth. She blinked big eyes and held a finger up towards the ceiling. “Oh, I have an idea!” She said excitedly. “Why don’t you just come over tomorrow?”

Cloud swallowed and finally looked at her. “To your… house?”

“Yeah!” Aerith nodded enthusiastically. “I’ll get snacks and we can hang out while I paint—oh, but… it might be kind of boring for you, huh?”

Cloud shook his head quickly. “I’ll come over,” He said before she could change her mind.

Aerith’s face brightened and she leaned across the table to look at him closer. “Really?!”

“Yeah,” Cloud nodded, feeling excited at _her_ excitement. “And it’ll give me a chance to see some of your paintings, finally.”

“They’re not all that,” Aerith said while laughing bashfully and waving a hand in front of her face. “But this will be fun! You have to tell me your favorite snacks, I’ll go to the store tomorrow morning and get everything you like!”

“I-I like everything,” Cloud told her. “You don’t have to get anything special.”

“Oh, hush,” Aerith leaned back in her seat and returned her attention back to her books with a much higher mood. “Since you’re being too polite to say what you like, I’ll just get a little bit of everything.”

“Should I bring anything?” Cloud asked her.

She lifted her eyes from her book and shook her head with a grin. “Just your lovely self!”

Cloud nodded once and ducked his head to look back down at his own assignments. He felt Aerith continue to look at him for a moment longer before hearing her stifle a laugh and look down again as well. The two sat in mostly silence as Aerith got immersed in her studies and Cloud tried not to worry about how the next day would go as the time passed.

He’d be in her house. In her bedroom, possibly. For some reason, the thought made him nervous, though he knew it shouldn’t, but… It also made him feel excited. He wanted to get closer to Aerith, to get to know her even more. He wanted to know the little things about her, like how she decorated her room—was it as colorful as she was, or did she keep it simple? Was she messy or clean? Did she collect things, have any interests or passions outside of art? Cloud wanted to know it all, as well as take any chance he could get to see her. As each new opportunity and excuse to spend time with her popped up, he found himself growing happier.

He flipped the pages to his notebook to find something from a previous lecture and heard Aerith gasp from across the table. “Cloud!” She cried as her hand slapped down on his notebook to keep him from turning the page. He blinked and looked up at her, then back down at her hand and saw that she was pointing at the lily he had sketched weeks ago, after the very first dream he’d ever had, before they’d officially met. His face flushed as she asked, “Do you draw?”

“N-No,” Cloud shook his head and pulled his notebook out from under her hand so he could close it and hide the sketch from her. “I just did that when I wasn’t paying attention in class one day.”

She stood up slightly from her seat a bit to get more leverage so she could pull the notebook back from him and open to the lily. “Don’t be shy, Cloud! It looks so good!” She said cheerfully as she looked at the sketch. “It looks just like the lilies I grow in my garden!”

“Um, yeah,” Cloud nodded. “I saw one once and—”

He stopped himself before he could say more because, he remembered, no, he _hadn’t_ seen them. He hadn’t seen her lilies once, in the dream or in person, when he sketched that. He hadn’t even realized he had done it until it was already complete, like an unconscious part of his mind was remembering something he couldn’t and had taken over his hand. 

Aerith eventually handed the notebook back to him and shrugged. “Well, it’s beautiful either way,” She told him. “Maybe you should become an artist? You could come to my school and everything.”

“No point if you’re not gonna be there next year,” He muttered as he looked down at the lily. 

“Ah, if only we could go back in time,” Aerith lamented teasingly. “But it’s okay! We still have the whole future ahead of us, right?”

Cloud lifted his gaze to her again and nodded. “R-Right,” He said. A long future, he hoped, with her. 

Aerith grinned, but her eyes widened in embarrassment when her stomach grumbled in hunger. She laughed quietly and placed a hand against her tummy. “I didn’t realize how late it was,” She said. “It’s already dinnertime, huh? Oh, right on time…”

Her phone buzzed on the table next to her with her mother’s picture on the screen. Cloud looked down at his own phone as Aerith answered her mom’s call and thought that maybe he should inform his mother where he was too, but then again, he hadn’t shared much more with her about Aerith and he didn’t want to give her an excuse to question him about it. And if she wasn’t calling in concern, then it obviously wasn’t a big deal that he wasn’t home, right?

Aerith hung up and smiled at him apologetically. “Sorry about that.”

“Gotta go home?” He asked her.

“Nope!” She replied happily. “I think my mom is beginning to warm up to you, you know. And you’ll have a chance to dazzle her tomorrow, too.”

“Dazzle?” He repeated while lifting a brow.

“Yes, dazzle!” Aerith said. “Or impress, if you’d rather be boring about it. How about a sandwich?”

“Huh?” Cloud blinked, then nodded when he remembered it was time they ate dinner. “Oh, sure.”

Aerith gave him one last smile before she disappeared from her seat to order a couple of sandwiches from the counter. As she did and he waited for her at the table, he finally got a text from his mother inquiring about his whereabouts.

Mom: _Are you going to be home for dinner?_

Cloud: **_Probably not, I’m studying_ **

**** Mom: _With Aerith???????????_

The amount of question marks made Cloud feel mildly exposed. 

Cloud: **_I won’t be out late_ **

Mom: _Have fun!!_

Cloud sighed and laid his phone face down on the table as Aerith returned with two plates that she placed precariously on top of their books. Cloud thanked her quietly as she sat across from him, and for the rest of the evening, the two ate their sandwiches and worked on their assignments until the cafe closed. As they packed up their things to leave, Cloud once again took Aerith’s bag to carry for her—she was already hanging her head in exhaustion, he didn’t want her to also have to carry her heavy books.

“What a gentleman,” Aerith said teasingly as they left the cafe.

Cloud grunted in response and she giggled quietly as they walked down the dark street. They walked in near silence, though Cloud felt that the quietness wasn’t awkward at all. Being with Aerith was easy and comfortable, whether they were talking or not. Then, when they were about halfway to her house, Aerith reached out without a word and took his hand in her own.

Cloud looked down at their hands, then glanced at Aerith who was still looking ahead like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Eventually, her eyes slid over to look at him and she smiled, then stuck her tongue out at him coyly. Cloud blinked at her, then turned his head to look straight and tightened his fingers around hers.

Aerith began humming one of her many made-up songs as an accompaniment for their walk and gently swung their hands back and forth between them. Neither had a thing to say, so they didn’t speak, the silence even more cozy now that they were holding hands.

As they reached Aerith’s house, she turned to face Cloud, their arms outstretched as they kept their hands clasped together even with the new distance between them. “Thanks for joining me on this impromptu outing,” She said with a grin. “And I’ll see you tomorrow. Does noon sound good?”

Cloud nodded at her. “I’ll be here.”

Aerith smiled and nodded back at him, but it took her a minute to finally drop his hand, like she was reluctant to leave. When their hands finally separated, he handed back her heavy bag, and she eventually opened her gate to end the night. “Bye, Cloud,” She said over her shoulder.

“See you,” Cloud lifted his hand in a small wave.

Aerith hesitated, her steps faltering as she looked at him with eyes sparkling under the starlight, but then she smiled to herself and waved back as she let the gate fall shut behind her, separating the two of them for the evening. Cloud waited until he heard her front door open and close before turning around to begin his walk home, already looking forward to seeing her again the next day.

——

Cloud stood in front of Aerith’s house ten minutes before he was supposed to arrive, staring at the gate door in front of him. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides as he tried to work through his own apprehension and nervousness. It wasn’t a big deal, he told himself, they’d just be hanging out. Who cared if it was in her house?

He cared quite a bit, as it turned out.

With a heavy sigh and a hope that it wouldn’t be weird that he was early, he pushed open the gate and walked down the path between the fragrant flowers to her front door. Her bike was leaning against the wall of the house and there were a few empty baskets sitting next to the door that Cloud saw as he knocked.

He only managed to knock once before the door flew open and revealed Aerith in front of him, smiling widely almost like she’d been waiting there for him to arrive. “Hi!” She said brightly. She was wearing jeans and a worn t-shirt splattered with old paint stains, her hair pulled back except for her fringe. There was some yellow paint on her fingers, meaning she’d already been working before Cloud arrived.

“H-Hi,” Cloud responded. He quickly lowered his hand, which was still raised to knock, and waited awkwardly for a moment.

“Well, come in!” Aerith said as she reached out to grab his wrist and pull him into her house with a laugh. 

Cloud stumbled into the house at her insistence and she closed the door behind him as he took his shoes off. Immediately, Cloud thought the house felt warm, with the dark wood floors and the soft lights lit throughout. Already from just the front door, Cloud could see vases of flowers scattered throughout the house, as well as paintings hung on the walls that he could only assume were Aerith’s own pieces.

Aerith led Cloud deeper into the house, allowing him to catch a glimpse of her kitchen—clean but cluttered with various cooking appliances and more flowers—before leading him upstairs. From all that he could see, eclectic seemed to be the best way to describe her home, based on the decorations and the mismatched furniture that somehow seemed to still fit well together.

“My room’s up here,” She told him as she led him to a door just off the landing of the stairs.

She pushed the wooden door open and stepped out of the way to allow Cloud to enter first. Unlike the rest of the house, which had a dark but cozy atmosphere, Aerith’s room was bright and colorful, just like her. The walls were white, her bed pushed in the corner was made up with a pink blanket and matching pillows, there were shelves hanging on the walls that displayed various knickknacks and a desk covered in books. Like the rest of the house, none of her furniture matched and it looked old, like she’d had it her whole life, but Cloud thought that it fit her perfectly. Sunlight poured in through a large window that, to no surprise, had a sill lined with flowers as well as a couple of other leafy plants.

Aerith came in behind Cloud and glanced at him to see his reaction. “It’s nothing special,” She said as she gestured to the room. “It’s basically been the same since I was a kid. Come on, sit down. I gotta get back to painting, so sit wherever!”

Cloud stepped forward into the middle of the room and turned to look at it more, dropping his book bag next to the desk, though he stopped when he got a glimpse of the corner dedicated to Aerith’s art. There was a canvas set up on an easel, sitting over an old blanket to catch any paint that might drip down, an old, stained shelf next to it holding all of her supplies.

And on the canvas was… Cloud. Well, an unfinished, painted portrait of him, anyway.

Cloud walked over to the canvas like he was in a daze to look at it closer. Suddenly, as he looked at the painted version of his hair, the yellow stuck to her hands made sense. She had included her own artistic liberties, like adding a touch of bright teal circling around his pupils and giving his hair a spikier look that defied gravity even more than it did in real life, but it was Cloud alright, turned slightly and looking straight out to make eye contact with whoever looked at the piece.

“You’re painting... me?” Cloud asked slowly as he looked at the canvas more.

“Yep,” Aerith said as she came up beside him.

Cloud looked at her, saw that she was smiling sheepishly while looking between him and the painting, like she was waiting to hear what he thought. He blinked, then finally asked, “...Why?”

“Well…” Aerith walked around him to pick up a paintbrush and her palette and stood herself in front of the canvas. “It’s for my project. The assignment was that we had to create something based on just one word, and the words were all handed out randomly.”

“What word did you get?” Cloud asked, figuring it was probably something to do with the sky.

But then Aerith smiled at him and said, “Happy.” 

She looked down at her palette and dipped her brush into a couple of the colors, mixing them to create something new. She dabbed the color along the painting’s neckline. “Honestly, when I got my prompt, I wasn’t exactly sure what to make. Should I paint something that makes me happy? What I think happiness is? I thought about it for days. I thought about all the things that made me happy but, I don’t know… nothing was really speaking to me. And then… I met you.”

Cloud swallowed, his throat suddenly tight and his eyes growing wide as he listened to her words, looking up from her slow moving hand to her face. She was smiling serenely, her head tilted slightly as she worked, her hand gliding the brush over the canvas and slowly bringing the painting to life.

Aerith looked at him from the corner of her eye for a moment before returning her attention back to the canvas. “... I don’t really have any friends, you know,” She admitted to him suddenly. “Even back when I was a kid, everyone thought I was weird. And… it was okay. I got over it. I had my mom, and then Barret and the kids and a ton of things that made me happy. I gave up on making friends. Didn’t take me long, really. Quitting is what I do best.”

She laughed in a quiet, self-deprecating way. “Not from what I’ve seen,” Cloud muttered, unhappy with her self-doubt.

Aerith’s smile grew and she put her brush down to pick up another, smaller one. “Well, that’s because I’ve been working extra hard lately!”

“Um… For what?” Cloud asked, frowning slightly.

Aerith turned away from her painting to look at Cloud properly. She regarded him for a moment, and then she shook her head with a laugh when neither of them spoke. She looked back at her painting and swiped her brush against the canvas.

“I’m really grateful I met you, Cloud,” She said, her voice growing abruptly nostalgic and soft. “You never thought I was weird—well, maybe you did, but you never showed it. You wanted to spend time with me, and… I’m thankful. I’m thankful for all the words we’ve shared, all the little moments and the memories we’ve made together… You’ve made me more happy than you know.”

She looked up at him again, and everything flashed sideways for a moment. She was in front of him, now with her long, twisted hair, her red coat over a pink dress, her flower necklace. There was no longer paint on her hands but pale moonlight reflecting off of her skin as she smiled at him, gentle and sweet. She opened her mouth to say something, her eyes caring yet melancholic, but Cloud couldn’t hear her what her moving lips were saying.

“Cloud?”

He blinked and he was once again in her bedroom, with the Aerith he was getting to know standing in front of him, with her paint-stained clothes and her short hair that shined with the light of the sun pouring through the window. But she was smiling the same way, looking at him with the same look in those identical eyes. And… Was she closer? Cloud realized then that he was slowly, hesitantly closing the distance between them and he didn’t want to stop, not when he saw those eyes flick down to look at his lips and he swore she was leaning towards him as well.

A knock had them both jumping apart.

“Aerith?” Elmyra’s voice called before the door opened and she walked in with a tray carrying two iced drinks. Cloud had never moved so quickly in his life, but before he knew it, he was by Aerith’s desk and looking pointedly down at the books covering it. Elmyra looked between him and Aerith, who was cleaning up some paint she’d accidentally spilled. “Cloud, I didn’t know you were here already.”

Cloud nodded at her and swallowed the nervous lump in his throat. “Y-Yeah. Thanks for having me,” He said, with as polite a voice as he could manage, though he couldn’t brave looking up at her.

Elmyra smiled at him and walked towards him to put the tray down on the desk, a large improvement from the cold look he’d gotten the first time he met her. “Of course. If you get hungry, we have a ton of food in the kitchen. Aerith practically bought out the store.”

Aerith smiled and winked. “I _said_ I was gonna get everything!”

“Um, thanks,” Cloud nodded at the two of them. “I’m fine for now.”

“Well, here’s some lemonade if you two want it,” Elmyra said while gesturing to the glasses. She turned to look at Aerith’s painting and then looked back at Cloud. “So, you saw it. What do you think?”

“Um, i-it’s beautiful,” Cloud said stiffly, his mind still reeling and his heart racing from what had just _almost_ happened with Aerith. “N-Not that I’m—I mean, I-I don’t think _I’m_ beautiful, just _her_ —I-I mean the _painting,_ it’s—” Cloud gulped. Elmyra was looking at him with a raised brow and Aerith was biting her lip, trying not to laugh. Cloud nodded and looked at his shoes. “It’s nice.”

Elmyra and Aerith shared a look, and Cloud didn’t want to know what kind of mother-daughter telepathy was passed between them as they smiled at each other. “I’d best be off so you can keep working,” Elmyra said as she moved to leave the room, pausing to pat Aerith on the shoulder. “Make sure you don’t go too long without a break.”

“I _know_ ,” Aerith said, feigning exasperation. “Thanks, mom.”

Elmyra nodded and walked out of the room, the door clicking softly as she shut it behind her. Aerith walked over to Cloud and stood close to him—probably closer than she needed to—to grab her lemonade. Cloud followed suit and copied her as she took a sip.

Aerith smiled at him, her cheeks tinged slightly pink, and then she ducked her head and turned away. “I should keep working,” She said as she scurried back to the canvas. She pulled her phone from her back pocket and looked over at Cloud. “What music do you like?”

“I like everything,” Cloud responded as he sat down at her desk, turned in the chair with one arm resting over the back so he could face her.

“You say that too much!” Aerith said in a scolding tone. “Fine, I’ll just put it on shuffle. If you hear something you like, tell me and I’ll add it to a playlist for you!”

“Deal,” Cloud nodded. He bent over to grab his bag and pulled out a book he needed to read for class, and Aerith hit play on her phone, filling the quiet space between them with soft, acoustic music.

The afternoon passed leisurely, with Cloud reading while Aerith painted. She sang along with the music absentmindedly as she did, and every now and then, Cloud would tell her that he liked the song that was playing, and she would pause to add it to his playlist as she promised she would. She slowly progressed on the painting of Cloud, spending an excruciatingly long time on adding more detail and shadow to his hair and eyes. She wiped her hand along her cheek as she finished something with a strand of his hair and turned to face the real Cloud.

“This is going to kill me,” She sighed while slumping her shoulders.

Cloud looked up at her from his book. “You got paint on your cheek.”

Aerith touched at her cheek and pulled her fingers away to find dark yellow staining them now, as well. She wiped her hands on her shirt and shook her head. “I always manage to get it on my face, somehow. Wanna get a snack? I could use a break.”

Cloud nodded and dog-eared his book to keep his page. Aerith hit pause on her phone, and the two of them walked out of her room and down the stairs to her kitchen. “Where’s your mom?” Cloud asked as Aerith pulled various snacks from her cupboards.

“Oh, off running errands, I’m sure,” Aerith said as she stretched her arms up to grab some bowls and plates. She ripped open bags of chips and poured them into the bowls, placed some cookies onto the plates, and then grabbed some sodas from the fridge. “Come on, let’s take this back up to my room.”

Cloud helped her carry everything and followed her back. “I’m surprised you’re not having a coffee,” He said teasingly.

“You say that like I didn’t have three cups this morning,” Aerith said, sticking out her tongue at him as she kicked her door open.

Cloud shook his head with a small chuckle and followed her into her room, shutting the door behind him. She knelt down in the middle of the room to set the snacks on the floor and Cloud followed suit, and soon the two of them were sitting comfortably on the floor, leaning their backs against her bed, while they picked at the snacks.

Cloud found his eyes constantly wandering to the painting of him. It was like Aerith had reimagined him, and he thought that she had made him look much more handsome then he actually was.

“I can stop painting,” Aerith said when she caught him staring. “If it’s weird to you.”

Cloud looked away from the painting and shook his head. “It’s not weird,” He told her. “And besides, you have to finish.”

“True,” Aerith sighed. “If I go all day tomorrow, I think I’ll have it done by Monday. Luckily, I think I can get away with being lazy with the background.”

“Have you ever painted yourself?” Cloud asked suddenly.

“Years ago, like, in my first year of middle school,” Aerith told him with a laugh. “I hated it, so I haven’t tried again since.”

“You should,” Cloud said while nodding towards her work of him. “It’d look good. Your style is cool.”

Aerith smiled at him and tilted her head. “It’d be like a matching set then,” She said, and Cloud looked at her in mild surprise. “The two of us. Don’t you think so?”

He looked down at a chip bowl and nodded. “I-I guess.” He grabbed a handful of chips and shoved them into his mouth.

The two of them sat together there for a little while longer, lounging while talking about nothing important. Aerith asked Cloud more about the music he liked as her phone played, and the two got into a heated debate about a song Cloud didn’t like that Aerith loved, but agreed to disagree when they switched to another song they both enjoyed. The playlist she was making for him was steadily growing, and Cloud wondered how it was possible that she could have the time to listen to so much music.

Eventually, she got up to continue her work. She stretched her arms behind her back and over her head and cracked her neck before she picked up her palette and brush to paint. Cloud stood as well to walk over to her and look at the piece a bit closer now that she’d had some time to work on it a bit more, though he kept some distance between the two of them so he wouldn’t get in her way.

“Looks like you’re pretty much done,” Cloud noted as he looked. It seemed as though the painting was finished from the neck up.

“There’s a lot of final touches I need to make,” Aerith told him as she tapped the end of her paintbrush against her lips while regarding the painting. “But I should finish the shoulders and the background first, I think… Then work on the details.”

She nodded to herself and dipped her brush in the paint, then delicately swiped it along the canvas to begin working on filling in the chest and shoulder area she had already outlined. The portrait was only from the chest up, but with the way Aerith was filling in the color, it had Cloud questioning just what she was planning.

“Are you painting me… shirtless, or something?” He asked as he watched her paint his arms with a skin-toned color.

Aerith giggled and shook her head. “Of course not! You’re just going to be wearing a tanktop, that’s all.” She outlined where the shirt would be with her finger. “Like this. Your arms will be bare, but it’ll have a high neckline. Very modest!”

“Where’d you come up with something like that?” Cloud asked incredulously as Aerith continued painting. He’d never worn anything like what she was describing in his entire life, nor did he think he ever would.

“I saw it in an ad, I think,” Aerith said with a shrug as she mixed two colors on her palette. “And I thought, wow, that would really suit Cloud!”

Cloud snorted and stepped away from the painting and Aerith to return to his seat at the desk. He picked up his book to begin reading again, though when he felt eyes on him, he peered over the edge of the book and saw Aerith turned slightly to smile at him from over her shoulder. She laughed to herself and turned back to her canvas, and Cloud smiled to himself, allowing himself a moment more to look at her before finally returning to his book.

It wasn’t until after a few more hours of peace, with the music playing and some chatter every now and then, that they were again interrupted by a knock at the door. Elmyra poked her head in before opening the door wider and stepping into the room.

“Good, you two ate some snacks,” She said as she eyed the half-empty bowls and plates on the floor. “Dinner’s ready, if you’re hungry.”

“Starving!” Aerith said happily. She put her brush and palette down and turned to Cloud. “You’ll stay for dinner, right? You don’t wanna miss my mom’s cooking!”

Cloud nodded and put his book down. “Yeah, I could eat.”

Elmyra nodded at Aerith. “Go wash the paint off your hands, then I want you to set the table for us.”

“You got it!” Aerith chirped before rushing past her mom and disappearing out of the room.

Cloud stood to follow her, but Elmyra was in his path before he could get far. He swallowed as she frowned at him, suddenly nervous for whatever was about to happen. “You seem like a nice boy, Cloud,” Elmyra said, catching Cloud off guard.

“Um… Thanks,” Cloud nodded awkwardly.

“Aerith really likes you,” Elmyra told him. Cloud’s stomach twisted. “I’m sure she’s complained to you about how protective I am, but this is different. I need to know that you don’t just _seem_ nice. I don’t want her getting hurt again.”

Cloud’s brows pinched in a frown and he shook his head, thinking of the conversation he’d had with Aerith after their first flower delivery, about the boy she’d seen that had gone to Cloud’s school. “I’d never do that,” He said adamantly. “I’d _never_ hurt her.”

Elmyra and Cloud had a bit of a staring match for a few moments, until Elmyra’s eyes eventually softened and she smiled slightly. “That’s good to hear.”

“Um, you two having a heart-to-heart?” Aerith asked while sticking her head into the room. “The food’s gonna get cold!”

“You’re right,” Elmyra said as she turned away from Cloud. “Let’s go eat.”

Cloud followed behind the mother and daughter with a sigh. The three of them walked down the stairs to the small table tucked away in a nook next to the kitchen, which was covered in food that smelled so delicious, Cloud found himself forgetting about his worries in practically an instant. Aerith appeared at his side and nudged his arm a bit, smiling at him knowingly. 

“Looks good, right?” She asked. “You’ll love it!”

The three of them sat down for dinner and Cloud found out that Aerith was right—Elmyra’s cooking was some of the best he’d ever tasted. The only thing that kept him from eating everything in sight was his own fear of appearing rude, though Elmyra and Aerith kept piling more and more food onto his plate. It was a nice evening, he thought as he watched Elmyra and Aerith talk about her project. Aerith seemed happy and stress-free, and Elmyra no longer looked at Cloud with contempt.

When they finished eating, Cloud jumped up to help Aerith with the dishes. The two stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the sink, with Aerith washing and Cloud drying. “So… What were you and my mom talking about before?” Aerith asked out of the blue.

“Oh, um… nothing important,” Cloud lied.

Aerith handed him a plate to dry. “You’re a bad liar,” She said with a smile. “Come on, tell me!”

“She just… said she thought I was nice,” Cloud said. No reason to share the entire conversation, he didn’t want to risk potentially embarrassing Aerith or bring up memories of a bad break-up.

“Wow, high praise,” Aerith nodded as she scrubbed at a pan. “I told you she was coming around!”

Cloud nodded and placed the plate in the dish rack. “You were right,” He told her.

As she handed him the pan, the last dish in the sink, Elmyra stepped into the kitchen. “It’s getting pretty late,” She said, and although she didn’t say it outright, Cloud could read between the lines.

“Right, I should get going,” He said as he put the pan away and quickly dried his hands on his pants. “My mom’ll want me home soon.”

“Oh,” Aerith frowned as she followed Cloud out of the kitchen.

“I’ll go grab my things,” He said before dashing up the stairs. He ran into Aerith’s room and grabbed his book and his bag, pausing only for a moment to get one last look at the painting of himself, before heading back downstairs. Elmyra and Aerith were waiting for him by the front door to say their goodbyes.

“You should come over again soon, Cloud,” Elmyra said to him as he stepped up to them, and he saw Aerith give a massive grin from over her mother’s shoulder.

“Yeah, I will,” Cloud nodded. “Thanks for dinner.”

Elmyra nodded, then gave Aerith a look and walked away to let the two of them say farewell. Aerith nodded her head towards the door and opened it for the two of them to step outside. They walked slowly between the flowers and Cloud felt the back of his hand brush against Aerith’s. As he pushed open the gate, he turned back to face her to say goodbye for the day.

“Let’s go!” Aerith said happily before Cloud could say a word, taking Cloud’s hand in her own and leading him out the gate and down the street.

“H-Hey!” Cloud cried as he was tugged behind her. “Where are _you_ going?”

“I’m walking you home, silly,” Aerith said while slowing down a bit so they could walk side by side.

“Thought your mom didn’t like you being out at night,” Cloud said with a frown.

“Yeah, well, I convinced her just this once,” Aerith winked with her finger held in the air. “You always walk me home, I thought it was time I repaid the favor!”

“Ah…” Cloud nodded and didn’t question any further. 

Aerith giggled and tightened her fingers around Cloud’s hand. “You’re not very talkative,” She told him, her tone light and airy.

“Don’t got anything to say,” Cloud shrugged.

“Hmm… But it looks like you’re _thinking_ a ton,” Aerith observed while pointing at Cloud’s forehead.

Cloud’s face flashed hot and he turned his head away. “U-Um, I’m not…” He stammered nervously. Truth was, she was right—he was thinking about how warm she felt, how comfortable it felt walking with her in the cool night air, worried that his hand would sweat in hers or that he had a food stain somewhere he couldn’t notice.

Aerith laughed again and shook her head. “I’m just teasing, Cloud,” She said with a sunny grin. “You can keep all those thoughts up there, you don’t have to share unless you want to!”

Cloud nodded and his gaze slid back to her. “What about you?” He asked her. “You thinking a lot, too?”

“Kinda,” Aerith said, meeting his eyes. “I’m thinking… I had a lot of fun today. I really like hanging out with you.”

“Mn,” Cloud agreed. “Me too.”

“It’s nice, just doing nothing together,” Aerith continued. “We should do nothing again soon!”

“Yeah…” Cloud nodded and swallowed. “M-Maybe next time you can… Come to my place. My mom’s been wanting to meet you.”

Aerith’s eyes turned sharp as her smile grew. “...You’ve been talking to your mom about me?” She asked, her voice quiet but bubbling with excitement just beneath the surface.

“Well… Yeah,” Cloud told her. “Why wouldn’t I?”

Aerith shook her head and looked forward, the same smile plastered on her blushing face. “I’ll come over soon then,” She said. “I wanna meet your mom, too.”

“She’d like that,” Cloud said as they turned on his street.

He stopped them in front of his house, ending the walk far sooner than he would have liked, and Aerith looked up at it. Unlike her house, which was blocked from street view by the wall and gate, there was a clear view to Cloud’s front door from where they stood. They lingered on the sidewalk just in front of the path that led to his house, avoiding the short walk to the door that would end their night.

“So, this is your house,” Aerith said as she looked at it. “I guess this is the first time I’ve seen it, huh?”

“Oh, yeah,” Cloud nodded. He hadn’t realized that, in all the time spent with her, she still hadn’t seen where he lived.

“I like it,” Aerith said with a smile, turning back to look at Cloud. She opened her mouth to say something but, after a quick second-guess, lowered her eyes to look at the ground. “I guess I’d better get going. My mom doesn’t want me to stay out too long.”

“You gonna be okay getting back?” Cloud asked.

“And… If I said I wasn’t?” Aerith asked, lifting her eyes again to tilt her head at him.

Cloud blinked, then began to walk past her, back towards the direction of her house. “I’ll go with you.”

“Hey,” Aerith laughed as she pulled him to a stop with the hand she was still holding. “Seems kind of out of the way for you to go all the way back after you’ve just gotten home.”

“Uh…” Cloud furrowed his brows at her and looked down. She was right, it didn’t make much sense to walk all the way back to her house after having just arrived at his, but… if it meant she’d make it back safe…

Aerith laughed once again and shook her head. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine!” She said while tugging on his hand a bit. “These roads are super safe, and I’m tough!”

Cloud looked at her, still in her paint-stained clothes, still with a dab of yellow streaked across her cheek, and offered a small smile with a nod. “Yeah, you are,” He admitted.

Aerith’s smile grew, and she looked into his eyes. For a moment, he felt like they were suspended in time, like he was floating weightlessly in the galaxies reflected in her deep green eyes. Then, without warning, she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his smiling lips.

Cloud’s smile fell as his lips parted in shock and his eyes went wide. She pulled back after barely half a second and he sucked in a deep breath that he held in his lungs, suddenly unable to remember how to breathe. She was looking up at him with something like hope in her eyes, her cheeks flushed darker pink and in his hand, he could feel her fingers trembling slightly.

The many thoughts once filling Cloud’s head were swept away all at once, leaving no doubt in him as he leaned in and kissed her again. 

It was a bit awkward, as first kisses typically were, and Cloud had no idea how he was doing, but he felt Aerith smile against his lips and that made him feel light enough to fly away. As they pulled apart for a second time, Cloud was certain his cheeks were as pink as Aerith’s, but he couldn’t bring himself to care one bit, not when the thing he’d been daydreaming of for—well, since before he even met her—had finally happened. He felt elated, like he could take on the universe if he needed to as long as she was by his side.

Aerith’s lips trembled as she tried and failed to suppress her wide smile, and eventually she ducked her head and covered her mouth with her hand. “I’ll text you?” Aerith asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Cloud breathed. “...Thanks.”

Aerith giggled and leaned in for one last peck against his lips. “Thank _you,_ ” She said as her fingers slipped from his grasp. He fought the urge to tighten his hold on her to keep her from pulling away from him, but he knew she needed to get home, and he didn’t want to ruin the good impression Elmyra had of him.

“Good night,” Cloud said as she put some distance between them. “Let me know when you get home.”

Aerith nodded and turned to leave. “Will do,” She promised him. “Sweet dreams, Cloud.”

With one last smile and a wave over her shoulder, she finally turned to walk away from him. Cloud stayed where he was like he was rooted there, watching her until she turned the corner and disappeared from his view. He stayed a few moments longer and allowed himself some time to fully process what had happened.

He couldn’t help it when he smiled as he touched his lips. He felt like an idiot, like the lovesick main character of some stupid romance movie, but he couldn’t help it. He felt happier in this moment then he had in… well, he couldn’t even remember being this happy.

He pulled out his phone when he felt it vibrate with a notification, knowing before looking that it was Aerith, texting as she walked home. With the smile still on his face and looking down at his phone, Cloud walked into his house.

_She’s standing just in front of him, haloed by a pale green light that shines through an opening in the forest surrounding them. She’s smiling at him serenely, like nothing at all is wrong even though he feels like he’s about to crumble at any second. Somehow though, in this quiet place with her, he feels a bit better._

_“Where is this place?” He asks in a voice just above a whisper._

_Aerith holds her hands behind her back and looks around. “It’s called the Sleeping Forest. It leads to the City of the Ancients.” She turns her eyes back to him and although she continues to smile, there’s something lurking beneath the surface, something resigned dwelling in the depth of her green eyes. “There’s not much time before Sephiroth uses Meteor. And as the last Cetra… only I can stop him.”_

_He opens his mouth to say something to her, but she turns her back to him and strolls towards the light shining behind her. Her footsteps bounce as she walks along the dirt, creating more distance between the two of them that he desperately wants to close. For some reason though, he is afraid to get close to her, afraid of what he might do._

_“The secret’s just up here. I can feel it,” She says. Then, she turns around and tilts her head so her hair swings to one side, and then she lifts a hand and waves at him. “So, I’ll be going now.”_

_She turns to leave again, and this time, he manages to take a step forward. “W-Wait!” He cries. “Aerith!”_

_She stops and turns back to look at him over her shoulder. She smiles like he’s keeping a secret. “Don’t worry, Cloud. I’ll come back when this is all over.”_

_And then she turns and runs towards the light. He outstretches a hand towards her, but she’s out of his reach. “Aerith!” He calls as he moves to run after her. No matter how hard he tries though, he cannot get closer to her, and he watches in fear and desperation as she disappears into the light that blinds him._

Cloud woke with a jerk and a gasp. He stared up at the moonlight that streaked across his ceiling with wide eyes, his chest heaving as he gulped in deep breaths and his hands trembling. He’d seen that before, that image of Aerith running away from him to a place he could not reach.

Guilt swam in his gut and regret gnawed at his heart, remorse over not going after her, and through it all he felt a longing to change things, a wish to see her again, just _one last time…_

Cloud grabbed his phone without thinking and hit his fingers against the screen. He held the phone to his ear, listened to the ringing, and then eventually heard a quiet, groggy, “Cloud…?”

“Aerith,” Cloud breathed, the sound of her voice like a wave of comfort washing over him.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, and he heard the rustle of her moving in bed and the click of a lamp being switched on.

“N-Nothing, I…” Cloud glanced at his clock. It was three in the morning, he’d just woken her up out of the blue, and for what…?

“Hmm, I don’t believe you,” Aerith said through a long yawn. “Why would you be calling me in the middle of the night if there was nothing wrong? Did you have a nightmare or something?”

Cloud swallowed and frowned up at his ceiling. Could it be called a nightmare when nothing bad or scary happened? Then again, the sight of Aerith leaving him and disappearing into the forest, he didn’t know why, but it terrified him. “I… just wanted to hear your voice,” He admitted childishly.

He felt like an idiot saying such a cheesy thing aloud, and even more so when Aerith didn’t say anything. She was silent for a few excruciatingly long moments before she finally asked, “So, do you feel better now?”

Although he couldn’t see her, Cloud could hear the smile in her voice, and it eased him even more. “I do,” He answered. “I’m sorry… y’know, for waking you up over something so…”

“Cloud,” Aerith said, gently scolding. “You don’t have to apologize. You know you can call whenever you need to, right?”

“...Right,” Cloud agreed. “I guess… I should let you go. Thanks.”

“My pleasure,” Aerith responded with a happy but sleepy voice. A beat of silence passed between them. “You’re not hanging up.”

“No, I’m not,” Cloud said quietly. He didn’t really want to hang up. Being on the phone with her made him feel… better. “Good night, Aerith.”

“Good night, Cloud,” Aerith whispered. “Call me when you wake up, ‘kay?”

“I will,” Cloud promised and, though there was an urge fighting against him to stay on the phone with her, he hung up. He sighed and stared up at his ceiling. 

That name again, _Sephiroth._ But now… he didn’t sound so much like a hero. He was going to use something called “meteor,” she was going to stop him… What had happened? And more specifically, what had happened to _her_ that left him feeling so... hollow?

Cloud shut his eyes before the fear could fill his gut again. She was right there, he reminded himself. She was by his side, and that wouldn’t be changing. He didn’t know what happened in that other life, what horrible thing could have befallen them to make him feel so harrowed and helpless, but it wouldn’t happen here. Things were different— _they_ were different, and he wouldn’t let anything happen to her this time.

Cloud stayed awake most of the night, afraid of what else he would see if he fell back asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> double points if you know what picture of Cloud I was trying to reference in the painting!  
> thanks for reading! please subscribe and come scream about how much you love them with me
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> 


	7. yuánfèn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Cloud and Aerith's relationship continues to deepen, memories that are not his own bleed more and more into Cloud's life and leave him fearful of something he does not know.

_ “Hey, wait!” _

_ He stops and turns around to eye the girl following him. Aerith looks at the gap between the rooftops and he doesn’t miss the way she gulps before jumping forward. She looks almost like a swan with both arms extended to keep her balance as she hops between the buildings. She stumbles a bit—maybe not a graceful swan, then. He feels amusement building in his chest at the sight, especially when she stomps over to him with a pout on her lips. _

_ “Don’t just go off on your own like that!” She scolds—whines, really, but it’s cute. _

_ Unable to help himself, he smirks at her and lifts a brow. “Those the words of a SOLDIER candidate?” He asks her, teasing and lighthearted. _

_ She looks almost surprised that he made a joke for a brief moment, but that look is wiped away and replaced with a growing smile. She’s too amused to get angry at the teasing remark and instead snorts and covers her mouth with her hand, ducks her head and tries to hold back her giggles but fails. In no time at all, she’s laughing like it’s the funniest thing she’s ever heard. _

_ And he can’t stop himself when laughter bubbles up in his throat as well. It makes him feel so light and free, his shoulders even shake with it. They stand there together for a while, doing nothing but having a good laugh. When was the last time he laughed like this? Has he ever in his life felt like this before? He can’t remember, but it feels nice. _

_ She wipes away tears that built in the corners of her eyes and looks up at him again with flushed cheeks. She has a pretty smile, he thinks. Like a flower.  _

_ She grabs his wrist and trudges onward. “Come on, no time to waste! Shall we mosey along?” She asks with a wink. _

_ He follows where she leads. _

Cloud sat with his chin in his hand, his fingers tapping idly against his cheekbone while he stared at the gold and red leaves falling to the ground outside. He was sitting alone in a cafe with a barely touched drink in front of him; he’d forgotten about it entirely, actually, as without Aerith there to converse with and distract him, he tended to get lost in his own thoughts a lot nowadays. He thought of the many dreams he continued to have, some just short snippets, some scenes played out in their entirety. They were getting so frequent, sometimes he even found himself having a hard time differentiating between what had happened in his real life and the dreams.

But what bothered him most of all was that name.  _ Sephiroth. _

He’d only heard it twice so far, but it lingered with him like a perpetual storm. Despite having not heard it in a dream since the one he had of Aerith running away in the forest weeks ago, Cloud couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was like a plague on his mind, taking over his thoughts despite knowing nothing about the person behind it. It left him cold and anxious, paranoid like there was someone just over his shoulder, waiting to pounce.

He’d asked Aerith if she’d ever heard the name, but she told him she hadn’t. Then he asked her if she’d ever heard anything about something called the Cetra, since—according to that dream—she was one but again, Aerith insisted she knew nothing. She then looked at Cloud like he was crazy, but he eventually convinced her that it was nothing, just something he’d read in a book. Sometimes he caught her looking at him like that a lot, like she could tell that something was wrong but was unsure of what. Cloud tried harder after that to keep her from noticing.

It was a problem for another lifetime, he concluded, yet he couldn’t appease his own mind.

Cloud vaguely heard the bell to the cafe door chime as it opened and close, and then—

“No way! Cloud?!”

Cloud blinked as he was yanked from his thoughts and lifted his head. “Z-Zack?” He asked in surprise, his eyes going big at the shock of suddenly seeing his friend standing in front of him. 

Zack laughed loudly, his smile as charming as ever, and pushed some of his black hair out of his face. “I thought that was you!” Zack said as he walked over to Cloud’s table. “I thought I was seeing things when I spotted you through the window! I mean, I never would have thought I’d see _ you  _ in a place like  _ this, _ but I’d recognize that hair anywhere.”

Zack laughed again and Cloud felt himself smile slightly. Zack was one of Cloud’s only friends, even though he was a couple of years older than Cloud. He’d taken Cloud under his wing when Cloud was an awkward and lonely first-year and became his best friend, someone that could almost always lift Cloud’s mood with just a joke and a laugh.

“What are you doing here?” Cloud asked him, leaning a bit over the table to look at Zack closer. Zack had left for university in another town when the new school year started and Cloud hadn’t seen him since. He’d cut his unruly spiky hair so it looked a bit more manageable, though he still let a couple of pieces hang in front of his eyes.

“Mom wanted me to visit,” Zack shrugged. “So I’m here for the weekend. I was gonna call you when I had time but then I found you! Oh hey, what’re you doing now? You could come over! I bet mom would love to see you again, and it’ll keep her from asking  _ me  _ too many questions.”

“Uh—” Cloud looked down at his drink with a frown. “I can’t now, I’m meeting someone.”

“Oh?” Zack smiled mischievously and grabbed the back of the chair across from Cloud to lean forward like he was an interrogator. “A _ girl, _ perhaps? That’s why you’re in this flowery cafe?”

“Um…” Cloud averted his eyes and scratched the side of his neck awkwardly. Zack was a natural lady’s man. He was able to woo and charm pretty much any girl he came across while Cloud was—not. The fact that he was dating Aerith was still a mystery to him and in his awkward shyness, he hadn’t divulged any details to anyone other than his mom and he still hadn’t told Zack  _ anything _ about it. Just the thought of knowing how Zack would try to get any and all information from him had his face feeling hot.

Before Zack could question him further though, the answer was given when the bell on the door chimed once again and Cloud looked up to see Aerith over Zack’s shoulder. She didn’t look very happy to see him though, and instead was looking at Zack with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open.

Zack followed Cloud’s eyes and turned to look over his shoulder. He jumped up straight when he saw Aerith and he slapped a hand to his chest in shock. “Aerith?! Whoa, what a coincidence!” He cried in shock.

Aerith still had the stunned look on her face as she looked slowly at Zack, then Cloud, then back to Zack. Cloud frowned at the two of them as Aerith’s expression soured. They… knew each other…? Something uneasy swirled in his gut as his mind found itself at certain conclusions.

“Oh, sorry!” Zack said as he looked back at Cloud. “I guess you two never met, huh? Cloud, this is—”

But Aerith walked right past Zack and came up to Cloud’s side. “It’s okay, we already know each other pretty well,” She said as she slipped a hand across Cloud’s shoulders. In a bold move, she draped her arms around his neck and leaned over, so her face was level with his and very close, then tilted her head and smiled at Cloud. “Right?”

Cloud gulped. He didn’t often wish a hole would open under him but right now, he would take anything to get him out of this. On the other side of the table, Zack was sputtering with a finger pointed at the two of them. “Y-y-you two are dating?!” Zack eventually cried so loudly other patrons in the cafe looked over him like he was crazy.

That hole couldn’t swallow him up at a better time, but nothing happened. Cloud was stuck between Zack and Aerith and the other patrons of the cafe whispering about them.

Aerith looked at him and smiled innocently. “What, is that so surprising?” She asked. She looked back at Cloud. “I’m going to get a drink.”

Then she kissed Cloud’s cheek and skipped away with a happy little hum. Zack was once again stammering out his disbelief at what he had just seen and Cloud’s head felt so overheated he was afraid it would explode. With what little coherency he had left, Cloud stood and grabbed Zack’s wrist to pull him out of the cafe.

Standing on the sidewalk outside the cafe, Zack began laughing while shaking his head. “This is crazy!” He said.

Cloud didn’t look quite as happy as Zack did. With a deep frown he asked, “So… did you and Aerith date or something...?”

“Oh, yeah, a while ago,” Zack said while waving his hand flippantly. “It didn’t last very long but… I kind of ended things suddenly when I went to university… I had a feeling it had upset her, so no surprise it looked like she wanted to kill me.”

Zack laughed sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal. Cloud thought of what Aerith and Elmyra had told him—so Zack was the asshole that hurt Aerith? Zack was Cloud’s best friend, but right now Cloud had an overwhelming urge to punch him in the jaw.

“But dude, this is so amazing!” Zack told him with a big smile. “Me and Aerith—we weren’t right for each other. I mean,  _ she’s  _ amazing, but even if we hadn’t broken up, I know we wouldn’t have lasted much longer. But you two? You two are perfect together! I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before!”

“You don’t think it’s kind of… weird?” Cloud asked hesitantly. Cloud wouldn’t give Aerith up for the world, not if he could help it, but he worried now that Zack and Aerith would be the ones to find it strange, that Aerith wouldn’t want to date her ex-boyfriend’s best friend and Zack would no longer want to be his friend due to the awkwardness.

“No way!” Zack insisted immediately with a smile that eased some of Cloud’s worries. “Listen, Aerith and I weren’t that serious. Not anything like it looks like you guys are anyway. I mean  _ geez, _ you should see the way you two look at each other! How long have you guys been in a relationship?”

“Uh—we’re not—” Cloud flushed and looked down at his shoes. Whether or not they were actually in a  _ relationship _ had yet to be discussed. “We’ve been dating around a couple months. Maybe a little less.”

“Man, that’s awesome! I knew you had it in you!” Zack clapped a hand heavily on Cloud’s shoulder and gave him a massive grin.

Cloud raised his eyes to look at Zack, the nervousness in his chest lifting from Zack’s stamp of approval. It felt good to know that Zack didn’t find the situation strange and, judging by how happy he was for Cloud, it was clear to see that he didn’t have any lingering feelings that might make him jealous. No matter who it was, Cloud had to think that anyone would feel weird dating their best friend’s ex-girlfriend, but in his typical fashion, Zack had a natural way of diffusing the situation and made Cloud feel much better.

Cloud sighed in relief and looked back down at the sidewalk and, just briefly, he thought he saw the concrete sway under him—or maybe he was the one that was swaying? His vision flashed white and he felt a pain in his temple that had him flinching as he blinked to clear his sight.

And then the grey concrete was gone, replaced with tan dirt turning dark from blood seeping into it and lying on the ground below him, he saw Zack—no, it couldn’t be, but… Cloud knew him. He saw his best friend, bloodied and bruised with bullet holes littering his chest. He was still smiling, even as he bled out and his breath rattled in his lungs. Cloud’s vision went hazy around the edges, the sight of Zack’s face blurring as bright blue eyes tinged with shining teal met his own.

_ “You’ll be my…” _

Like a nail had just been hammered into the side of his head, Cloud gasped in pain and stumbled back two steps. He put a hand to his temple, his eyes shut tight as he groaned and tried to shake away the pain and the horrifying image, but it wouldn’t go away. There was a noise so loud he felt deafened, something like static—no, rain?

Zack… he was dying. Cloud needed to save him, he needed to do something but he couldn’t move, his arms were heavy like lead but Zack  _ needed him— _

“Cloud!?” 

A hand grabbed his shoulder and the vision broke. The bloody dirt was once again the cracked sidewalk. The sound of the rain abruptly stopped and the headache dulled to a mild throb. While gulping in deep breaths, Cloud slowly lifted his eyes and found Zack in front of him, trying to get a look at his friend’s face with worry painted on his own.

“Cloud, are you okay?” Zack asked quietly as he pulled Cloud to the side, closer to the cafe window, to make room for pedestrians that walked by with confused looks in Cloud’s direction. 

Cloud forced himself to slow his breathing, took one long breath and let it out, and then nodded. He looked at Zack’s face once, now free of wounds and dirt and blood, and then looked to the window. Just inside the cafe, Aerith was giving Cloud  _ that _ look again, her brows pinched in a frown and concern swimming in her green eyes. She was halfway out of her seat, no doubt to run out and help Cloud, but Cloud minutely shook his head at her.

She pressed her lips into a thin line, hesitating, but with a look at Zack, she slowly sat down.

“You sure?” Zack asked apprehensively. “You look like you saw a ghost or something.”

Cloud nodded again. With each breath of fresh air, he felt his mind clear more and more. He was okay. They were okay. He was Cloud Strife, the boring high school second-year, and this was his best friend Zack Fair, university student and lady’s man. They had no wars to fight, no one to want to kill them. His friend was alive and well.

He found it difficult to believe himself.

“Y-Yeah, yeah. I’m fine, just…” Cloud frowned and looked at his friend’s face. Blue eyes, a bit lighter and icier than Cloud’s, looked back at him. The strange glow he’d seen in the vision was not there. Cloud swallowed and took a deep breath. “I’m really happy you’re here.”

He said it quietly, like he was confessing a secret, but it was true. He couldn’t imagine losing Zack, if he did… He felt like he’d break. But he wasn’t living a life where that happened, and for that he was grateful. He couldn’t fathom what it would be like. He couldn’t imagine anyone, in any universe, that would want Zack dead.

“Um… I’m happy, too,” Zack said with a slightly awkward laugh. He was still looking at Cloud like he didn’t fully believe him, but something over Cloud’s shoulder distracted him before he could continue the subject. He grinned and waved a hand over his head. “Hey! Man, what a day!”

Cloud turned around and this time, it was Tifa that had shown up. He couldn’t tell if this was bad luck or not. She looked a little surprised, a small smile playing at her lips. “Zack!” She said as she jogged to close the distance between them. She gave Cloud a glance, and he saw her gaze slip to the window, at Aerith inside. She nodded and looked at her feet as her excitement was promptly stifled. “Um… Hey, Cloud.”

“This is great! The whole gang, together again!” Zack gave a resounding laugh and jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. “Bad timing though, I gotta go. But we should all hang out soon!”

“How long are you here for?” Tifa asked. There was a shadow of a smile on her face again when she looked at him. “It’s been forever since we saw you.”

“Just the weekend,” Zack told her. “But, I might see if I can come back again in a couple weeks. The bus ride’s a bitch but I heard there’s a big carnival comin’ to town that I don’t wanna miss. You interested?”

Tifa blinked big eyes at him and pointed to herself. “Me?”

“See anyone else?” Zack asked with a smile. He shrugged a shoulder and sarcastically said, “Oh, well, I guess Cloud’s here. But no one really cares about him, so…”

“Didn’t you have somewhere to be?” Cloud asked dryly while crossing his arms over his chest.

“For real though, we should go. All of us!” Zack said with a laugh and a slap on Cloud’s arm.

“Well…” Tifa looked down as she scuffed the toe of her shoe along the ground.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Cloud said suddenly. Tifa looked up at him in surprise—they’d barely spoken since Cloud and Aerith started dating. Tifa had pulled away and Cloud didn’t know what was wrong or how to mend the friendship. But judging by the way her expression was brightening at his suggestion, it seemed this might help. Cloud didn’t realize how much he would miss Tifa’s friendship until he lost it. He was happy to see her looking at him with something other than contempt for the first time in weeks.

“Hell yeah!” Zack pumped his fist in the air. “Oh, and bring Aerith too! She’s into things like that, right?”

Immediately, Tifa’s face fell. “Um, I’ll ask her if she wants to,” Cloud said quickly to move the topic along.

“I have to go,” Tifa said quickly with a curt nod.

“Let me guess, off to training?” Zack asked with a knowing smile. “You know you could kick literally anyone’s ass, right? Is it necessary to train every single day of your life?”

“I train so I can continue to kick ass,” Tifa said with a smile returning to her face. “And if you don’t watch out, you’ll be next.”

“You know, that doesn’t sound as bad as it sounds…” Zack said teasingly. Tifa’s face flushed, something Cloud was almost certain he’d never seen before, not unless she was embarrassed. Zack laughed and pointed in the direction he needed to go in. “Your gym is the same way I have to go, right? Let’s walk there together!”

“Oh, sure,” Tifa nodded, her voice sounding a little floaty.

“And Cloud, I’ll try to get away from my parents if you wanna hang before I leave,” Zack told Cloud. “If not, I’ll see you when I come back for the carnival! You already agreed so you can’t back out!”

Cloud smiled and raised a brow. “If I tried, Tifa would probably kick my ass anyway.”

That got a small smile in his direction from her. She chuckled quietly and grabbed Zack’s elbow to drag him away. “Let’s go,” She said. “See you later, Cloud.”

“Yeah, see ya,” Cloud nodded and waved at the two of them as they walked away, watching as they spoke animatedly to one another, a bright smile blooming on Tifa’s face as Zack said something to make her laugh. He hurried back into the cafe to return to Aerith who had been waiting for far too long. She smiled at him, seeming mostly unbothered except for the worry still in her eyes as he took a seat across from her. “Sorry about that,” He told her.

Aerith shook her head and took a sip of her half-drunk coffee. “Are you okay?” She asked quietly while leaning across the table. “When you were talking to Zack, you looked kind of…”

Cloud shook his head. “I’m fine,” He assured her. “Just got a headache. It’s gone now.”

“Oh, okay…” Aerith, like Zack, looked very much like she did not believe him, but she didn’t press him any further. “So, you and Zack… you’re friends?”

“Yeah…” Cloud nodded and looked down at the table awkwardly. Zack was fine with it but what if Aerith wasn’t? His heart suddenly sped up as his stomach twisted with fear once again.

“What a tiny world!” Aerith said, her voice chipper and not at all upset. Cloud lifted his eyes to look at her in surprise and saw that she was grinning. “But now it all makes sense!”

“Uh… What does?” Cloud asked her.

“Well, I thought you reminded me of him a little bit,” Aerith explained as she leaned back in her seat. “But I thought it was so weird. I mean, you’re nothing like him! I was so confused about why I felt like that, but now it makes sense—it’s because you two know each other! I guess it was just a gut feeling or something.”

Cloud felt something else squeezing in his chest now, something that he couldn’t name but that made him anxious and upset. “What d’you mean, I’m nothing like him?” He asked in a quiet voice. At Aerith’s silent questioning look, Cloud swallowed and continued, “I mean, like… Is it because he’s more—”

Cloud cut himself off and looked away from her before he could say something stupid. Because Zack was more handsome? Charming? Outgoing? Funny? It was no secret why Zack was so popular—he was everything Cloud wasn’t, and surely Aerith saw it as well.

“Cloud…” Aerith said slowly as she leaned across the table again with a coy glint in her eyes. “Are you… jealous? Huh? Are you?”

Cloud huffed and looked away without answering to glare out the window. He felt angry—not at Aerith, but himself. So that was the feeling. He didn’t like the way it felt, but he couldn’t help it. What if Aerith realized how  _ bad _ she had it with Cloud? Not only that, Elmyra made it pretty clear that Aerith was very upset over Zack breaking up with her—what if this just reminded her of that and brought up all those old feelings? What if she associated Cloud with all of the negative emotions she had and then—

Aerith laughed quietly and placed a soft hand over Cloud’s on the table. “Come on, Cloud. Don’t be silly,” She said. “You’re not like Zack, but that’s a  _ good  _ thing.”

That made Cloud look back at her. She was looking at him with softness in her emerald eyes, something warm and adoring.

“You’re… kinder,” She explained. “And you’re—I don’t know how to explain it. You’re just _ you,  _ Cloud. And that’s much better for me.”

Cloud swallowed and looked down at his lap. “O-Oh…” 

Aerith squeezed his hand in reassurance before leaning back in her chair and picking up her cup to take a drink. “Plus, I think you’re  _ much _ more handsome. And you kiss—”

Cloud cut her off with a groan as his face caught fire, and he pinched his nose bridge in an attempt to hide the possible blush on his cheeks. “Aerith…” He murmured in embarrassment.

Aerith just laughed at him, her voice like bubbles that floated over to him and lifted his spirits immediately. He lowered his hand to look at her, finding himself smiling despite the relentless teasing she was putting him through. He supposed the torture was worth it if it meant he could see her smile like that.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have been so mean to him,” Aerith said as her laughter died off. “I just couldn’t help it, his face was priceless.”

“He’ll get over it,” Cloud waved a hand. “You should hear some of the things other girls have done to him. They were ruthless.”

“Oh, poor guy,” Aerith smiled apologetically for Zack. She shook her head and looked at Cloud with bright, sparkling eyes. “But enough about him. I’m so excited for tonight, I can’t wait to meet your mom!”

“She’s excited, too,” Cloud nodded, grateful for the topic change. “She won’t stop talking about it.”

“And I can’t wait to see your house,” Aerith said with a catty smile. “Got any baby pictures to show me?”

Cloud narrowed his eyes at her. “In your dreams.”

“Yes, I do often dream about seeing pictures of you as a baby,” She nodded. She put a hand to her cheek and shut her eyes, smiling as she pictured her fantasy. “Oh, you must have been absolutely adorable! I bet you were chubby, with fat little cheeks but spiky blond hair—”

“Stop imagining it!” Cloud cried.

“Can’t, it’s in my brain forever now,” Aerith said with a grin. “I’ll ask your mom, I know  _ she’ll _ give me the goods.”

“You two are going to kill me,” Cloud sighed while slumping in his seat.

Aerith sighed in mock-sorrow and shook her head sadly. “Well… At least I’ll have the baby pictures as a memento.”

“You can’t come over anymore,” Cloud retorted.

“Try telling your mom that,” Aerith quipped with a teasing smile.

Cloud had no response to that because he knew that Aerith was right. His mom would probably kick him out before letting him cancel their dinner, but Aerith would be allowed in whether he was there or not. Cloud stubbornly grabbed his glass and took a drink, and that just made Aerith laugh again.

“Oh yeah,” Cloud put his drink down and looked at her. “Apparently there’s a carnival in town a couple of weeks from now.”

“Right, I heard about it,” Aerith nodded. “It’s traveling from town to town.”

“You... wanna go?” Cloud asked.

Aerith narrowed her eyes at him incredulously. “You’re asking me to go to the carnival?” She asked slowly.

“Uh… yeah,” Cloud gave her an equally suspicious look. “You don’t want to?”

“No, I do,” Aerith shook her head. “It just doesn’t seem like something you’d want to do so it surprised me.”

“It’s not normally, I guess,” Cloud admitted. “But it’s something  _ you _ like.”

“How considerate,” Aerith smiled, and Cloud thought he could see some pink flushing her cheeks. “I’d love to go with you!”

Cloud nodded and, not knowing what to say, awkwardly murmured, “...Cool.”

Aerith giggled behind her hand and had another sip of her drink. For the rest of the afternoon, until the autumn sunset was casting a warm, red glow over their small town, Cloud and Aerith lounged in the cafe together, conversation flowing easily between them as they enjoyed the other’s company. After one more drink each and sharing a slice of cake, the two stood to leave and head to Cloud’s house.

“Don’t tell my mom we had cake,” Cloud told Aerith as they walked hand-in-hand down the leaf littered street. “She made a cake for tonight. It’ll hurt her feelings.”

“Hm, I think I get it now,” Aerith said while tapping her chin idly. “Why Cloud is so sensitive. You get it from your mom!”

“W-We’re not—” Cloud sputtered. “I mean,  _ I’m _ not—”

Aerith interrupted him with a swift kiss to his cheek and smiled. “It’s a good thing!” She told him as he scowled—or pouted—at the ground.

His front door opened before they even reached it, revealing his mother looking at the two of them with a wide smile. “There you two are!” She said excitedly as she walked outside to meet them. She took Aerith’s hands in her own and looked at her like she was an angel sent from heaven just to bless their house. “And you must be Aerith!”

Aerith returned her sunny smile with one of her own. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Strife!” Aerith said politely.

His mother shook her head. “Please, call me Claudia. We’re not formal here!” She told her. She led Aerith into the house and, as they walked up the path, she turned to look at Cloud over his shoulder to mouth the words,  _ She’s so cute! _

Cloud quirked a brow and shrugged one shoulder in agreement. He knew his mom would fall in love with Aerith the moment she saw her. As the three of them stepped into the house, his mom left Aerith’s side and scurried to the kitchen to check on something. Aerith took off her shoes and looked around the entryway.

“That’s so cute,” She said as she looked at a picture hanging on the wall. “You and your mom have matching names. Is this you?”

Cloud came up beside her and looked at the picture—his mother and him at the beach. He was wearing bright blue trunks and smiling bright for the camera. He nodded. “Mom’s the sentimental type.”

“Another mystery about you explained,” Aerith said while tilting her head with a cheeky smile. “You two are so much alike! But you know, you should smile like this more often.”

“Like a five-year-old?” He asked her.

“Exactly,” She nudged his side with a laugh.

The next moment, his mother was returning from the kitchen. “Well, don’t just stand in here!” She said as she pushed the two of them towards the living room. “Let’s sit and relax!”

“I love all the pictures you have hung up!” Aerith said as she looked around. Her eyes landed on Cloud, piercing like a dagger as she smiled mischievously. “But you wouldn’t happen to have any  _ baby _ pictures of Cloud, would you?”

Cloud glared at her and she stuck her tongue out at him as his mother excitedly proclaimed that  _ of course _ she has baby pictures. She settled Aerith on the couch and quickly grabbed a few of their photo albums. She sat beside Aerith and Cloud stood behind the couch to look over their shoulders at the pictures.

“Oh, he’s absolutely adorable!” Aerith cooed with her hands over her mouth. “Look at those cheeks!”

“Aren’t they the cutest?” His mother asked as she turned the page. “He was so chubby as a baby!”

“Hey, don’t show that!!” Cloud lunged over the back of the couch to cover the page with his hand. 

“Don’t be rude, Cloud,” His mother said in too amused of a voice as she pushed his hand away.

“But I’m  _ naked!” _ Cloud exclaimed as he eyed the offending picture.

“That just makes it better!” Aerith teased. His mother giggled along with her.

“Come on Cloud, everyone has naked baby pictures!” His mother told him as she reached for a different album. “This one has even more bathtime pictures! He loved bubble baths!”

“So _ cute!” _ Aerith squealed.

Cloud groaned and hung his head. “I’m going to get water,” He grumbled as he dragged his feet out of the room.

He slowly made his way to the kitchen, pulled a tray and three glasses out of the cupboards and filled the glasses with water. He listened to the way his mother and Aerith laughed loudly in delight with each other and the exuberant conversation about Cloud’s first day of school they were happily having. Although he didn’t appreciate that  _ he _ was the subject of their amusement, he had to admit that he was happy they got along so easily.

Cloud placed the glasses on the tray and carefully picked it up to return to the living room. He watched the tray as he walked until he reached the entry of the living room, then lifted his eyes. He stopped like he’d been paralyzed. He wanted to yell, to run towards his mom and Aerith, but he couldn’t. His voice was stuck and his legs were too heavy to move.

Standing behind the couch, in the same place he had just been, was a man. A tall man with long silver hair, intimidating pauldrons covering each shoulder, that wore dark leather like armor. The glasses clattered slightly against the tray in Cloud’s shaking hands as he eyed the impossibly long sword the man held in one outstretched hand, the blade stretching in front of his mother and Aerith. The two continued to chat without a care, without knowledge of the fatal threat waiting just behind them.

They couldn’t… see him?

Fearful but unable to resist some unseen force that pulled him, Cloud lifted his eyes to the man’s face, but something was wrong. Just as with his early dreams of Aerith, he couldn’t see the man’s face. Like his eyes were glitching, all Cloud could see were smirking lips and eyes with pupils slit like a cat’s, teal and glowing with something inhuman—

Those eyes looked right at Cloud and he thought his skull was splitting open.

The tray fell from Cloud’s hands as he grabbed his head and doubled over with a cry of pain, glass shattering on the floor. He thought he heard Aerith and his mother call his name, but he could barely hear anything over the ringing in his ears. He couldn’t even hear his own voice as he gasped and tightened the hold on his head like it would keep it from breaking apart.

“Aerith, be careful of the glass!” He heard his mother’s voice say from very far away. And then—

_ “I’m waiting…” _

“Cloud?”

A gentle touch to his cheek and then Cloud was able to squint his eyes open. He saw Aerith’s eyes first—she was bent in front of him so she could look up at his face. “Are you okay?” She asked softly.

“Cloud, sweetie, what is it?” His mother asked from the other side.

Cloud swallowed, his throat feeling scratchy, and nodded. He lowered his hands from his head and looked past Aerith into the living room. The man was gone. “I’m fine,” He said in a shaky voice. “Just… a headache.”

Aerith took one of his hands and frowned at him. “Maybe you should lie down,” His mother told him. “Go take some medicine. I’ll clean this up.”

“I’ll take him,” Aerith said. She tugged gently on Cloud’s hand and he followed numbly behind her. When they were in the kitchen, Aerith turned to him and put a hand against his cheek. “Cloud? Are you really okay?”

Cloud nodded, but he was lying. Aerith was perceptive, but he was a bad liar anyway.

“You said you got a headache earlier, too,” She said quietly. “And a lot of other times. Is something… going on?”

There was a moment, just a brief second where he felt everything dance on the tip of his tongue, ready to share with her. And maybe Aerith would understand; Aerith seemed like the only person that would not think he was crazy if he told her his story, but… He didn’t want to worry her. He wanted to figure out what this all meant before he dumped something as heavy as hallucinating scenes from an alternate life on her.

“I’m okay,” He told her. “I just need some medicine, I’ll just—it’s in the bathroom.”

He reluctantly pulled away from her warm touch and walked past her to head to the bathroom. He closed and locked the door behind him, then leaned his hands on the sink and hung his head with a shuddering sigh. He took a moment, then yanked the faucet to turn on the cold water and splashed some on his face.

He thought back to the awful dream he’d had of his house burning, of his mother dying. He remembered Aerith’s ominous words in the forest, the cold voice and those eyes that haunted him like a ghost.

“Sephiroth…” He whispered to himself. Cloud lifted his head and looked in the mirror.

He saw those alien eyes again, shining with malice, cold and cutting—they were  _ his _ eyes.

He gasped and stumbled back from the mirror and into the door. His eyes were back to normal in an instant. He slowly got closer to the mirror again to look at them in better detail. They were as they usually were, the same deep sapphire he’d had his whole life, the same color as his mom’s.

He jumped when someone knocked on the door. “Cloud?” He heard Aerith ask. “Is everything okay? I thought I heard something.”

“J-Just dropped a bottle,” Cloud called back as he wretched the medicine cabinet open and grabbed the bottle of pain reliever. He tipped two pills into his palm and swallowed them dry. He put the bottle back, shut the cabinet and looked at himself in the mirror again.

He was losing it.

“It’s not real. It’s just a memory,” Cloud whispered to himself. He narrowed his eyes. “Not even _ your  _ memory. Let it go.”

The reflection looking back at him didn’t answer, though for a split second, Cloud thought it would.

He turned around and opened the door. Aerith wasn’t waiting for him there, so he slowly walked back to the kitchen. His mother and Aerith were standing together there and talking lowly to each other, but when Aerith spotted Cloud, she smiled and stepped away from his mother to walk over to him.

“Feeling better?” She asked him.

“Yeah…” He nodded as he looked between her and his mother.

“Do you want to go lie down?” His mom asked, still frowning in concern.

Cloud shook his head. “I think it was just a migraine. It’s better now,” He told her. She obviously didn’t believe him—it was a pretty awful lie, even he knew it, but there was nothing else he could say. He bit his bottom lip and looked away from the two sets of eyes watching him.

“Then… Let’s eat dinner,” His mother said with a nod. “It should help you feel better. I just need to set the table and we’ll—”

“I can do that!” Aerith offered as she grabbed the plates that his mother had just pulled out of the cabinet. “Don’t worry about it!”

Cloud grabbed cutlery from the drawer and Aerith followed him to the small table where the two slowly placed the three plate settings. “Cloud…” Aerith said in a hushed voice, so that his mother couldn’t hear her.

“I’m fine,” He told her again. “Really. It’s just…”

There it was again, the urge to confide in her. He supposed it was just easy to do so; Aerith was probably the easiest person to talk to he’d ever met. He felt comfortable with her, so much so that he wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable with her, to share the feelings he’d rather keep hidden.

“Cloud, you know I’m—” She began to say, but his mother interrupted them when she carried a dish over to the table.

“I hope you’re both hungry!” His mom said as she set the dish on the table.

“Starving!” Aerith said, her expression perking up with a smile. “It looks delicious Claudia!”

“Sit, sit!” His mom said as she urged the two of them into their seats.

The majority of the evening was filled with conversation between Cloud’s mother and Aerith. They chatted about Aerith’s garden, her deliveries, her schooling. Cloud informed his mom that Aerith had painted a portrait of him, and she insisted that Aerith bring it by so she could see it as well. To Cloud’s chagrin, they also discussed his childhood at length.

“Well, Cloud was a bit of a troublemaker for a while,” His mother said with a smile in his direction that he could only describe as  _ motherly.  _ That smile that was a mix of love, understanding, and exhaustion.

“What do you mean?” Aerith asked as she ate her slice of cake.

“I used to get into fights a lot,” Cloud told her before his mother could.

“Practically everyday!” His mom elaborated. “The amount of times I was called to his school—I thought he’d be expelled!”

Aerith looked at Cloud and he expected her to look horrified or at least a little confused at the revelation, but no. She gave him the same kind look she always did. “Why did you get into fights?” She asked him.

Cloud shrugged. “I don’t know… The other kids were annoying. And stupid.”

“Cloud,” His mother scolded. 

“Well they  _ were,” _ He grumbled while crossing his arms over his chest. He glanced at Aerith, then looked down at the cake crumbs on his plate. “I haven’t gotten into a fight in a while.”

His mother smiled happily at him and nodded in approval. She then forced one more slice of cake on Cloud and Aerith, despite their protests of being too full, and would only let Aerith go when she finished. His mom hugged Aerith tight as she went to leave and made her promise that she would come back soon and often. Aerith had no problem making that commitment.

“Your mom is so fun,” Aerith told Cloud as he walked her home.

“Sometimes I think she likes to have  _ too  _ much fun,” Cloud mumbled. “And at my expense.”

Aerith leaned forward a bit so she could get a look at Cloud’s face. He raised a brow at her and she smiled knowingly. “I’m curious. Are you going to tell me why you _ really  _ got into fights?”

Cloud frowned at her. She was too perceptive for her own good. He sighed and shrugged one shoulder. “I dunno, I was an angry kid, I guess,” He admitted to her. “No one wanted to be my friend. That would upset any kid, but… instead of crying about it, I threw punches.”

“Well…” Aerith said as she reached out to take his hand in her own. “It’s a good thing you have friends now.”

Cloud smiled gratefully at her. “My mom loves you,” He told her. “Not that she was trying to hide it or anything.”

“I love her, too!” Aerith replied excitedly. “Oh, I wonder if our moms should meet? I bet they’d get along well!”

Cloud thought about it for a moment and shrugged. “It… wouldn’t hurt,” He said, unless his mom told Elmyra about his troubled past and it freaked her out so much she forbade Aerith from ever seeing him again. But… that probably wouldn’t happen. Maybe.

It was as they turned up Aerith’s street, a path now engrained in Cloud’s memory, that she spoke again. “You know, Cloud… If there’s ever anything bothering you, you can tell me,” She said with a voice that was surprisingly quiet and delicate. He looked at her, but she was looking down at her feet as they walked with a troubled expression on her face. “I mean… you don’t _ have  _ to tell me, if you don't want to, but... I guess… You’ve just been kind of worrying me lately.”

She looked up at him again with a frown. She didn’t look angry, nor disappointed, just… lost, like she didn’t know what to do with Cloud. It made Cloud feel guilty. “I know,” He told her quietly. “...I’m sorry.”

Aerith squeezed his hand. “I want to believe you when you say you’re alright,” She continued. “So I’m not going to push you. But if you ever need someone to talk to, you can talk to me. Even if you think it’s stupid or trivial or anything, it doesn’t matter. I’ll be here to listen to anything you need to say.”

“Really?” He asked as he looked at the stars dotting the sky above them. Her reassurance made some of the anxiety that had found a home inside his mind fade a bit. Aerith wasn’t a judgemental person, she was always kind and understanding. And… she had told Cloud, back during the festival, that she believed in rebirth or multiple lives or whatever it should be called. What would she think if she found out Cloud was hallucinating people he’d never met before, though?

“Of course,” Aerith nodded. “I am your girlfriend, after all.”

Cloud stopped so suddenly, Aerith ended up being pulled to a stumbling halt by the hand he was holding. She looked back at him, her eyes wide and searching his face for something—probably to see if it was another one of his “headaches,” but that wasn’t the problem. Cloud’s head was empty of everything but that one word she’d said.

_ “Girlfriend?” _ He asked in an embarrassingly choked up voice.

Aerith blinked at him. “Yeah, I mean…” She looked a bit flustered as well. “I-I guess we haven’t officially discussed it, but I’m—if you want me to be, I mean, unless you don’t, then we can keep it—”

Aerith stammered on adorably. It wasn’t often she was the one that tripped over her words; she was always so confident in herself and her actions, but now she was acting much like Cloud typically would. He wondered if she thought he was as cute when he did the same thing.

“I do,” He said quickly, before she could ramble into a conclusion where she thought he didn’t. “I want to. I mean I want you to…”

Cloud rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Why was it so hard to say? He wanted to be her boyfriend. For some reason, the word felt juvenile, like it couldn’t fully encapsulate what he wanted their relationship to be. He didn’t want to be a highschool sweetheart, he didn’t want to be someone like Zack that would have a fun fling and then move on to the next. He wanted to be with Aerith, simple as that.

“Oh,” Aerith squeaked. She nodded once. “Good.”

Unable to help himself, Cloud’s hand curled against her neck and into the waves of her hair. It was getting longer, the ends now brushing along her collarbones. He wondered if she’d start wearing it up soon. 

She looked at him expectantly, and Cloud indulged her with a kiss. As he pulled away, she smiled happily at him. “Wow,” She said quietly. “I don’t think you’ve ever kissed me like that.”

“W-What are you talking about?” Cloud stuttered as he yanked his hand back from her hair. It only took a moment for the two of them to fall back into their usual roles.

Aerith giggled and tugged on the hand she was still holding. “Come on. My mom is going to yell at me if I take too long.”

Cloud nodded and, both still blushing, the two walked the rest of the way to her house. She stood on her tiptoes to give him another kiss before disappearing into her gate and running to her front door. And in her usual fashion, she didn’t even wait until Cloud had gotten off her street before she texted him.

Aerith:  _ goodnight boyfriend _

Cloud gulped.

So there. It was official. 

Later that night, Cloud went to sleep smiling.

_ “So… Which is it?” _

_ Everything’s white. He can’t see her, but he knows Tifa’s voice. Why does she sound so upset? And why does it feel like there is a noose tightening around his heart? _

_ “A memory? Or us?” _

_ Memory…? _

_ There is something on the tip of his tongue, something he needs to say, but the scene changes before he can. _

_ The white begins to fade—sunlight pouring in through an open door, he realizes. There are others around him but he only focuses on two people, silhouetted by the light so bright he can hardly see them. One person leaning against the door frame, the other walking towards it. But they’re—they can’t be— _

_ His eyes adjust. He sees his friend leaning against the door, smiling slightly at him, and… _

_ She turns to look at him over her shoulder. She’s smiling, comforting and content and maybe even proud, even though it feels like they’re saying goodbye.  _

_ “You see?” She asks gently as she turns away again. “Everything’s alright.” _

_ She joins his friend. Together, they disappear into the sunshine. _

When Cloud woke up just before sunrise, it wasn’t with a gasp of fear or a cry or anything like that. He just slowly blinked his eyes open and stared up at the ceiling. It felt like a hole had opened in his chest.

In that other life, Zack was dead. It was impossible that he could have survived with those wounds Cloud saw. And Cloud didn’t exactly know  _ how _ he knew this, but Zack was already dead when he saw him in the dream, appearing as a ghost or maybe a hallucination, or maybe it was something more.

But Aerith… if she was joining him, walking into that light with him, then...

Cloud frowned as a profound sadness he never thought he could feel washed over him. His eyes burned for a person he hasn’t lost.

He felt rather bad for the other version of himself. He hoped that, somehow, the other him knew that there were other lifetimes where things were better for him. For all of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yuánfèn (缘分) - "the fate between two people."
> 
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	8. destiny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud gets his mind off of troubling thoughts and spends carefree time with Aerith and his friends. However, like a curse, it feels as though there is something he is unable to avoid.

_He’s standing in a dark place, one that feels like the crossroads between reality and death. He’s holding his sword out in front of him, ready and waiting to face the man that’s facing him. He knows this man. Sephiroth. The armor Sephiroth usually wears is gone, stripped away and leaving nothing to guard himself except the long blade he holds up._

_The sight of Sephiroth’s blade makes a phantom pain linger in his chest and he grips his own sword just a bit tighter before lunging forward. A power flows around him as he hits Sephiroth with the edge of his blade again and again, quicker than Sephiroth’s defense. He jumps in the air with his sword raised above his head, the power surrounding him shining at the tip of his blade as he swings it down._

_There’s blood dripping from Sephiroth’s wounds as he stumbles back. His beaten body begins to shine white until it disappears in a shower of fading lights._

_He watches as his enemy disappears in front of him, exhausted, his own wounds stinging and his chest heaving. He blinks when a new light begins to shine at his feet and looks down to find a green glow rising from beneath him and snaking around his body. The pain of his wounds fade as it rises, pooling above his head in a beautiful spectacle._

_His eyes widen as the darkness around him begins to lighten, the green glow spreading out above his head and framing a pale hand that reaches out for him. He outstretches his own hand towards it with a deep longing to take hold, to follow her wherever she leads._

_He’s almost there, just close enough to brush the tips of their fingers, when the brightness around him grows and blinds him to everything._

“Cloud!”

Cloud looked up from his shoes and saw Jessie waving her hand over her head towards him. With her stood Wedge, Biggs, and Tifa, who gave him a small wave when she saw him look over. Cloud changed direction and went over to the group. It was too late to pretend he hadn’t seen them, and if he tried anyway, Jessie would probably tackle him.

“What’s up?” He asked them.

“Tifa told us you’re coming to the carnival tomorrow!” Wedge said happily.

“I never thought you were the carnival type,” Jessie said with her arms crossed over her chest. She tilted her head, thick brown hair falling over her shoulder and a smug smile on her face. “What changed?”

Cloud scowled at the girl and didn’t entertain her with a response. Judging from the way her smile grew though, that was exactly the answer she wanted. Luckily, Biggs stepped in before the silence dragged on too long. “Are we all gonna go together or what?” He asked.

“I’ll—uh, I’ll meet you guys there,” Cloud said with a nod.

“Come on, man!” Wedge cried while grabbing Cloud by the shoulders to shake him slightly. “It’ll be so much more fun to go together! We can meet early, get some pizza, maybe—”

“Cloud is going with someone else,” Tifa said suddenly. Wedge turned, and together he and the rest of the group all looked at Tifa. Cloud expected her to look bitter or upset, but she was smiling slightly at them all. She gestured to Cloud. “They’ll probably want to do something before and then they’ll meet us there. Right?”

Cloud nodded dumbly at her while Jessie looked between the two of them with tight lips. “Wait, wait, wait, who is this mystery person Cloud is going with!?” Wedge asked while waving his hands dramatically. No one answered him, so Biggs put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. 

Jessie shook her head and raised a flippant hand. “Whatever, as long as we can all get on the rollercoaster together. I won’t leave until I hear Cloud scream,” Jessie said with a slightly sadistic smile in his direction. “But until then, I have to leave you all to get to my acting class.”

“Yeah, we should go too,” Biggs said with a nod to Wedge. “Don’t wanna be late.”

“You two got jobs or something?” Cloud asked them.

“We’re volunteering at the police station!” Wedge told him excitedly. “Gotta help somehow!”

“See you guys tomorrow!” Biggs told them as he nudged Wedge in the direction of the school entrance.

“Later,” Jessie said with a wink as she followed them.

Then it was just Cloud and Tifa, alone in front of the school. Tifa tapped the toe of her shoe awkwardly against the ground a few times before finally asking, “Want to come hangout while I train?”

Cloud looked at her in surprise and nodded. It had been so long since she’d invited him, he could hardly even remember the last time he’d joined her. But ever since Zack visited a couple of weeks prior, she’d been looking happier, and whatever anger or hatred she held towards him seemed to be melting away. And with Aerith, too, judging by how she’d just acted.

“Be right back,” Tifa told him as they stepped into the gym before rushing off to the locker room to change.

Cloud sat on the bench he usually occupied when he watched her train and pulled his notebook out of his bag to do some studying. Before opening it though, he checked his phone. Aerith had sent him a picture from the library, her table covered in study materials for her entrance exams, and asked what he was doing. He told her what had happened, and she replied with excitement that Tifa was talking to him again.

“Okay,” Tifa said as she came out from the locker room, now wearing her typical workout gear. She slipped off her shoes by the mat and twisted her hair into a bun to keep it from getting in the way before she began her warmup. “Oh, can you hand me my water?” She turned to Cloud and held a hand out towards him.

Cloud looked at her hand and thought he felt the ground shake under him. He thought he saw the hand from his dream again, reaching out to him in that strange abyss before disappearing in a white light, and then suddenly Tifa was above him, crying his name as she tried to grab him as it felt like the earth was falling apart all around him. 

“Cloud?”

He blinked and he was back in the gym. Tifa frowned at him, her hand still held out for her water, and he fumbled for it in her bag before handing it over. She nodded at him in thanks, though her brow was still furrowed in confusion at his odd behavior as she walked to the punching bag.

As the room filled with the sounds of her fists connecting with the bag, Cloud sighed and slumped against the back of the bench. In one of his dreams, he’d heard people talk about something called the Lifestream. Was that the light that had surrounded him? Saving him after defeating…

“Hey, Tifa,” Cloud asked. Tifa only grunted in response without losing her concentration. “Have you ever heard the name Sephiroth before?”

Tifa hit the bag once more and then stopped to wipe her brow and take a sip of water. “‘Sephiroth?’” She repeated. “Never. Sounds like a pretty weird name.”

“Yeah, I guess it is…” Cloud murmured.“Where’d you hear a name like that, anyway?” Tifa asked as she turned back to the bag to begin kicking it.

“Just read it somewhere,” Cloud lied quickly. “Can’t remember where though and… I’m trying to find it.”

That seemed to be enough for Tifa, since she nodded and once again focused all of her attention on her workout. The two fell into a comfortable silence as Cloud read over some of his notes and began his homework for the evening. It wasn’t until a while later, when Tifa had sweat dripping down the sides of her face, that she said something again.

“So… How are you and Aerith doing?” She asked while breaking for another sip of water.

Cloud looked at her in surprise at the question. “Um… Good. We’re good,” He told her. He hadn’t told her just how much their relationship had progressed—he didn’t exactly get a chance since she refused to talk to him. He wasn’t sure how much he should share though; Tifa may seem happier now, but for as oblivious as Cloud could be, he knew that there was something about Aerith that seemed to upset her.

But now, Tifa didn’t seem upset at all. A little nervous, maybe, but not angry or saddened or anything of the sort. She nodded at him. “That’s good,” She responded as she turned back to the bag. “She seems sweet. It’ll be nice to get to know her more tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Cloud nodded. “She’s excited to meet you, too. And everyone.”

Tifa looked over at Cloud and smiled slightly. “Yeah, it’ll be fun,” She said. “And you’ll have someone to hold your hand when you get sick from the rollercoaster.”

“I’m not going to get sick,” Cloud scowled at her.

“Please. You have the worst motion sickness I’ve ever seen in my life,” Tifa laughed as she teased him.

Cloud felt queasy just thinking about it. He didn’t like to admit that he had motion sickness, which was why he avoided riding buses and sitting in the backseats of cars. It felt like such a petty and lame ailment to have and he would rather not have to share the detail with Aerith, if he could help it, but based on how excited Jessie and Tifa were to get him on the rollercoaster, he probably wouldn’t have much of a choice.

Cloud suddenly felt nervous for the day to come. The more he imagined Jessie, Aerith, and Tifa together, the more he worried that they’d become an unholy trinity with the sole purpose of teasing him into oblivion.

“Don’t worry,” Tifa said when she saw the pale look on Cloud’s face. “I’ll bring some anti-nausea medicine for you.”

“ _Ha, ha,_ ” Cloud responded sarcastically. He ignored her laughter and instead returned his attention to his homework.

Tifa trained for about an hour more before calling it a night and wrapping up. Cloud had finished almost all of his homework, which wasn’t bad considering his usual habit to put it off until the last possible minute. The two left the gym and the school campus together and turned down the street to begin their walk home.

“I’m really excited for tomorrow,” Tifa said as they walked while smiling at her shoes. “I know it’s just a stupid carnival, but it’s going to be so much fun.”

Cloud shook his head. “It’s not stupid,” He told her. “It doesn’t happen often here.”

“Yeah, I haven’t been to a carnival since I was a kid,” She said. “Now that I think of it… I invited you to go with me and you totally turned me down!”

Cloud furrowed his brows as he looked at her. “You never invited me to a carnival,” He told her.

“Yes I did!” She argued. “I asked you to go with me and those other boys that lived nearby.”

“I don’t remember you ever inviting me to a carnival,” Cloud said, adamant. He did, however, remember watching Tifa and her friends run excitedly down the street to go to the carnival he would not attend.

At his insistence, Tifa frowned and looked away in thought. “But… I could have sworn I did,” She said quietly.

Cloud just shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe I’m just forgetting,” He said, though he could swear on his life that it never happened. It seemed that he and Tifa had conflicting memories about events from their childhood.

“Well, whatever,” Tifa shrugged as they reached Cloud’s house. “It’ll be fun either way! I’ll see you there tomorrow!”

She continued walking with a wave. “Yep,” Cloud nodded as he turned to walk to his front door. He turned to look at her once more over his shoulder as she disappeared down his street. He felt lighter now that Tifa wasn’t icing him out, like all the anxiety surrounding their friendship disappeared.

He actually felt excited for the carnival. Spending the day with Aerith and everyone else and only having to worry about what ride to go on next felt like the exact kind of relaxation he needed. No dreams to think about, no other memories. All he had to do was make sure he didn’t throw up on the rollercoaster.

—

“Aerith!”

Cloud perked up when he heard his mother’s voice from all the way in his bedroom. He jumped out of his desk chair and raced out of his room and to the top of the stairs. When he looked down, he saw his mother and Aerith standing in the entryway, chatting like old friends. Aerith noticed him first and grinned up at him.

“Heya!” She said happily. 

Cloud frowned at her and walked the rest of the way down the stairs. “I thought you were going to come later?”

Aerith nodded and shrugged one shoulder. “I thought it would take longer to get here, but it’s not a very long walk!” She told him. Since the carnival was more in the direction of Cloud’s house, they’d agreed to meet at his door and walk there together. It was no problem she was there, just that Cloud had expected her fifteen minutes later and didn’t like giving her and his mother any opportunity to talk. About _him._

“Aerith tells me you two are going to the carnival that’s in town,” His mom said while giving him a pointed look. “All you said was “hang out.” Why didn’t you tell me that’s where you two would be going?”

Cloud looked away from his mom’s glaring eyes. “We’ll be hanging out there, won’t we?”

His mother sighed and looked back at Aerith. “You are too sweet of a girl to be with a brute like him.”

Cloud looked at his mother in shock, his ears going hot. “M-Mom!” He squawked.

Aerith just laughed at his mother’s teasing and shook her head. “Brutes happen to be my type!” She said as she skipped over to Cloud to take his arm in her own. “Besides, he’s cute.”

“Please stop,” Cloud begged while covering his face with his hand.

His mom laughed and held her hands up in surrender. “Alright, alright. Go have fun you two!”

“We won’t be out too late, Claudia!” Aerith told her as she dragged Cloud to the door.

“Bye mom,” Cloud grumbled as he was pulled out of the house.

Aerith giggled in amusement as they walked off of Cloud’s property and down the street. Cloud gave her a glance now that he was able to get a good look at her without worrying about his mom. She was dressed appropriately for a carnival; jeans that wouldn’t obstruct any ride she wanted to go on, a tight flowery top, her makeup done just enough to accentuate the green of her eyes. She had her hair pulled back as well, so only her fringe and a few longer pieces of hair framed the sides of her face.

Her hair was still short compared to her counterpart in Cloud’s dreams, but other than that, she looked basically identical now. The same, just a few years younger and without the heavy burdens of that life weighing her down.

“Are you going to stare at me all night?” Aerith suddenly asked without looking at Cloud.

Rising to her challenge, Cloud gave her an even more pointed look. “Maybe.”

She smiled and looked at him. There was a bit of glitter shimmering under her eyes and her lips were glossy and pink. “Good,” She told him. “It makes me feel special.”

Cloud snorted and that broke the playful moment, allowing the two of them to look forward. “My classmates are going to be really annoying, you know,” Cloud said to her as they walked. Even from as far as they were, he could already hear noises from the carnival floating to them.

“You mean your _friends_?” Aerith asked with an insistent tug on Cloud’s hand.

“Um… They’re not—” Cloud began, but Aerith tugged him again, this time so hard he bent down in her direction a little.

“Come on, Cloud!” Aerith said in a scolding tone. “Don’t be so shy! They invited you to go to the carnival with them, you guys like spending time together. They’re your friends!”

Cloud frowned as he thought about it. “I… I guess,” He conceded. It felt odd admitting it, like Aerith was breaking down walls he didn’t even realize he had up around himself.

“Besides, I want to meet them,” Aerith told him. “They sound like a blast!”

“That’s one way to put it,” Cloud grumbled. “You know Zack’ll be there too, right?”

“Yes, I know,” Aerith nodded. “And I told you, it’s fine! Tonight is meant to be a night of fun and relaxation, so lighten up!”

To make a point, Aerith tugged Cloud down again and kissed him on the cheek. He was sure he had a lipgloss mark on his face now, but he couldn’t find that he cared very much. 

By the time the two arrived at the carnival, it was packed with people and bathed in a bright, orange glow from the sunset. After buying their tickets, the two carefully made their way through the crowds of people. Aerith stood on her tiptoes as they walked to keep an eye out for Cloud’s group, which Cloud pointed out was useless, seeing as she didn’t know any of them.

“I know Tifa!” Aerith rebutted as she continued to look around. “And Zack will stick out like a sore thumb!”

“Hey! Cloud! Over here!”

Cloud and Aerith both looked to the left, where they saw Wedge waving at them from a spot next to the carousel. Cloud pulled Aerith with him through the stream of people until they reached Wedge, as well as Biggs, Tifa, and Jessie.

“Look who finally decided to show up!” Jessie said with a smile in Cloud’s direction. Her eyes honed in on Cloud and Aerith’s clasped hands, and then she looked at Aerith and gave her a friendly smile. “Gonna introduce us?”

“I’m Aerith!” Aerith said with a small wave. “It’s really nice to meet you guys, Cloud’s told me all about you!”

“All bad, I’m assuming?” Biggs asked with a smug grin. “About how annoying and dumb we are?”

“Well, not all the time,” Aerith said, laughing a little.

“That’s a surprise,” Biggs responded with a laugh of his own. “Anyway, I’m Biggs.”

“And I’m Wedge!”

“Jessie.”

Aerith nodded at the three of them and then grinned at Tifa. “It’s nice to see you again Tifa!” She said happily.

Tifa offered her a small smile and a nod. “Yeah, same here.”

“Wait, you two have met?” Biggs asked. “How much do you know about Cloud’s mystery lady that you haven’t told us?!”

“What did you expect me to say?” Tifa asked while crossing her arms over her chest. “And she’s not a mystery anymore.”

“Hey, I’m starving! I’m gonna get some snacks!” Jessie said suddenly. She grabbed Cloud’s arm and pulled him out of Aerith’s grasp. “Help me out, Cloud!”

“H-Hey!” Cloud tried to argue. He gave Aerith a desperate look, but she just waved him off with a laugh. He scowled at Jessie and tried to pull his arm free. “You’re the worst of them all, you know that right?”

“Oh, I know,” Jessie told him with a wink. “I just wanted to talk to you, is all.”

“What about?” Cloud murmured.

They reached the snack stand and Jessie paused their conversation to buy a few orders of popcorn. “I had a feeling Tifa already knew about Aerith,” Jessie said as she handed over some cash. “When she started giving you the cold shoulder. But she seems to be better now, yeah?”

“Seems so,” Cloud said with a shrug. “Though I still got no idea why she was acting like that in the first place.”

“Um, because she’s in love with you?” Jessie said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“W-What?!” Cloud sputtered, his face going hot. “No she’s not! That’s insane!”

“Is it though?” Jessie asked with an incredulous look in his direction.

Cloud stammered for the right words to say. “We barely even hung out, why would she—?” He tried to ask, though the more he thought about it, the more things made sense. She’d begun asking him to hang out more around the time he began spending time with Aerith, she’d been so upset after seeing him with Aerith at the festival, barely looked at him or spoke to him after…

He’d been able to figure out that there was something about Aerith she didn’t like, something about Aerith she was jealous of. Even in his dreams, it was painfully obvious. He’d just never thought that it was _him_.

“I think that Tifa didn’t even realize it herself until she started losing you,” Jessie told him. “The more you pulled away to be with Aerith, the more she wanted you for herself.”

Cloud swallowed and looked at the ground. He felt bad for some reason, like he should have realized it sooner. But then again, what else could he have done? He just felt so oblivious for not seeing it.

“Listen, don’t worry about it,” Jessie continued as the worker at the stand began handing over her order. “It’s not your fault or anything. You didn’t do anything wrong, and Tifa will find someone else. Someone that’s a better fit for her, y’know? Here.”

She shoved a few bags of popcorn into Cloud’s hands and nodded back in the direction of their friends. Cloud followed behind her like he was on autopilot. He thought of his dreams—Tifa’s jealousy towards Aerith there suddenly made more sense as well. But if she liked him so much… why didn’t she show it more? Or had she, and he was too much of an idiot to notice?

“I wonder if they have pizza around here,” Jessie murmured while looking around.

“Probably wouldn’t be as good as your mom’s though, right?” Cloud replied absentmindedly, still focusing on his new revelation.

Jessie looked back at Cloud with a look of confusion. “Um, I don’t think my mom’s ever made a pizza in her life,” She said while raising a brow. “Unless you’ve been having secret pizza parties with her?”

Cloud looked up at Jessie again. There was a subtle ache in the back of his skull, like his brain was resetting itself. Why had he said that? He’d never heard Jessie say anything about her mother making pizza, so why would he—

But in a dream he had, he remembered. He hadn’t gotten to try it, but everyone told him how delicious it was. He played it off as nothing, but actually, he’d really wanted to try it. But before he could, Jessie…

“Hello? Earth to Cloud?” Jessie asked while waving a hand in front of Cloud’s face.

He blinked and focused on Jessie. “Uh, sorry,” He told her. “Guess I got confused.”

Jessie smiled sympathetically at him and shrugged. “You’ve given me a great idea though. My mom’s a bomb cook, I bet her pizza would be awesome if she tried to make it. Now come on, everyone’s waiting.”

Cloud continued following her and shook his head like it could unscramble his brain. He was just tired, he told himself. The dreams and memories, they were so strange, so outlandish that of course he wouldn’t get them confused for his real life.

Except… as time went on, as more and more pieces began to slot into place, some of those memories didn’t seem so strange. Except for the sword he carried in the dreams, sometimes it seemed like that life could have been a normal one. One with friends that laughed over inside jokes and helped their neighbors, just like this one. But it was still very different, wasn’t it? He should have no problem remembering what is his reality… right?

“We’ve returned!” Jessie announced theatrically, pulling Cloud out of his troubling thoughts.

Cloud handed out the popcorn he was holding and Aerith came up beside him. “You okay?” She asked quietly. She asked that a lot now, after the episode Cloud had when she came over for dinner.

He nodded at her. “Fine,” He said. “Just… overthinking.”

Aerith frowned at him and opened her mouth to argue, but a booming voice over the crowd cut her off. 

“Well, look who it is!” Someone called behind them. The group turned and Aerith’s face brightened up.

“Barret!” Aerith and Tifa called at the same time. The two girls looked at each other in surprise.

“You know Barret?” Tifa asked with a frown as the man made his way closer.

“I deliver flowers and volunteer at the orphanage he works at!” Aerith told her. “What about you?”

“Oh, me and Tifa train at the same gym on the weekends,” Barret said once he was close enough. Marlene was sat on his shoulder, hiding most of her face in shyness in front of the group. When she saw Cloud though, she smiled and waved a little.

Aerith smiled and took Marlene’s hand. “What a small world,” She said as she shook Marlene’s arm to get her to smile a little. “Having fun Marlene?”

“Daddy’s gonna win me a big toy!” She told Aerith.

“Oh, is he?” Aerith asked with wide eyes. “I’m jealous!”

“Just have your boy Cloud win you one,” Barret said with a sharp smile. Cloud just looked away and crossed his arms over his chest.

“I had no idea you were coming,” Tifa said, now smiling a little. “Is Cid with you?”

“Cid?” Aerith asked while tilting her head.

“Gym buddy,” Barret explained. “Yeah, he’s around here somewhere. Lost track of him when we passed by a beer tent.”

“Sounds like him,” Tifa laughed.

“Daddy, all the toys are gonna be gone!” Marlene whined while pulling on Barret’s ear.

“Her Highness has spoken,” Barret said teasingly. “I’ll catch y’all later. Next time you see me, I’ll have a tiger as big as Cloud in my arms.”

“So like, an average sized toy?” Biggs asked teasingly. Cloud scowled at him and Biggs shrugged. “What? You’re kinda small, dude.”

Barret laughed and Marlene giggled as well. “We gotta go,” Barret told them. “Maybe we’ll run into each other later.”

“Definitely!” Aerith nodded.

Barret waved and walked back into the crowd, which parted for the large man. “Well, now that we all have our snacks, should we find some rides to go on?” Jessie suggested.

“Oh, let’s go on the rollercoaster!” Wedge said excitedly.

The entire group cheered in agreement, but Cloud felt his stomach drop. He stuck to the back of the group as they made their way towards the ride, hoping that maybe he could get away with disappearing for just long enough to avoid it, but Aerith caught sight of him while she was talking to Wedge and hung back to wait for him. She took his hand in hers and leaned into his side.

“What, scared of rollercoasters?” She asked.

“Not scared of ‘em,” Cloud told her. He felt nauseous as they approached the ride. “They just… make me feel sick.”

“Well then don’t go on it!” Aerith assured him. “It’ll be fine as long as you don’t mind waiting for us.”

“Trust me,” Cloud said as he gestured towards the group chattering happily in front of them. “They won’t let me. If I try to get out of it, they’ll probably tie me up and force me on.”

Cloud shuddered as he imagined it, but Aerith just tapped her chin in though. “Hmm… In that case…” They were just about to the end of the line when Aerith groaned dramatically and grabbed Cloud’s arm, causing everyone else to look back at her. She put a hand to her stomach and looked pitifully at them. “Guys, I don’t feel so good.”

“What’s wrong, Aerith?” Wedge asked.

“I think I ate something bad or something,” She said. For added effect, she put a hand to her mouth like she was about to be sick. “I don’t think I can ride this right now. I might hurl if I try.”

“A-And I’ve gotta stay with her,” Cloud said quickly, catching onto her motives. “Y’know. In case she throws up.”

Aerith nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, I need Cloud for moral support.”

Jessie narrowed her eyes at them. “Hey! You’re just trying to get out of riding it!”

“No, she’s really sick,” Cloud said flatly.

Jessie stomped towards him. “You—!”

Tifa grabbing her arm stopped Jessie. “Come on, let’s just go before the line gets too long,” She said quietly. She looked at Cloud and Aerith. Maybe it was from seeing them so close together, but she was the one that looked like she might be sick. “We’ll meet after?”

Cloud nodded at her. “Text me when you guys are done.”

Tifa smiled at him and nodded. “Will do.”

“But—!” Jessie tried to argue, but Tifa pulled her away before she could. 

Wedge followed them and Biggs laughed. “Lucky break,” He winked at Cloud before following as well.

Cloud looked at Aerith. “You’re amazing,” He said in awe. He didn’t know why he’d ever doubted her.

“I am, aren’t I?” She grinned at Cloud. “Well, since I’m so sick, what shall we do?”

Cloud shrugged. “I heard they have some giant tigers at the games.”

Aerith laughed and pulled his arm. “Then what are we waiting for?”

In the game area of the carnival, Aerith and Cloud ran into Barret and Marlene again. They also met Barret’s friend Cid, a burly man who seemed to hate everyone except for Marlene. Cloud was pretty sure he’d seen the man in his dreams, but just in the background. Cloud couldn’t win the giant tiger—it was the prize of a shooting game that seemed impossible but Barret was oddly good at. He did manage to get her a little black and white cat with a dainty crown on its head from the balloon popping stall, and she seemed as happy as Marlene had been to receive her tiger.

“I’m going to have a collection of plushies you win me pretty soon,” Aerith said as she played with the cat.

“You know, it’d probably just be cheaper to buy one online or something,” Cloud said as he pinched the cat’s ear.

“But where’s the fun in that?” Aerith laughed. She was promptly cut off when a girl stopped in front of her. She had short hair and a wide, wild grin on her face.

“Aerith!” The girl said. “I thought that was you!”

“Oh my gosh, hi!” Aerith said happily. She gestured to the girl to introduce her to Cloud. However, even though he’d never met the girl before, he already knew her name. “Cloud, this is Yuffie! She’s in her first year at my school.”

Yuffie pointed at Cloud and raised a brow. “This your boyfriend?” She asked.

“Yep, this is Cloud!” Aerith told her.

Cloud nodded at her in greeting. He hadn’t seen Yuffie much in his dreams, just enough to know that the mischievous smile on her face was exactly the same. “He’s so cute!” Yuffie cried.

While Cloud’s face went hot, Aerith just laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I think so!”

Yuffie’s name was called by someone nearby. “Well, I just wanted to say hi!” Yuffie said as she was already turning away. “I’ll see you at school Aerith! Nice to meet you Cloud!”

She disappeared into the crowd in a blink, as swift as she had appeared in front of Aerith. “My school does this mentor program,” Aerith explained as she and Cloud continued through the carnival. “Some of the older students volunteer to help the newbies. I was Yuffie’s mentor, and we got pretty close. She’s a firecracker though.”

“You can say that again,” Cloud murmured. “She’s nice, though.”

“She is, isn’t she?” Aerith asked. Cloud pulled his buzzing phone from his pocket and Aerith glimpsed at the screen. “Are they done?”

“They’re about to get on,” Cloud told her. “So they should be done by the time we get back.”

Cloud was right. Just as he and Aerith returned to the rollercoaster, Tifa, Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge were stumbling off. Jessie’s usually impeccable hair was a complete mess and Wedge’s eyes looked like they were spinning. Aerith laughed at the four of them and tilted her head.

“Have fun?” She asked.

“Dude…” Biggs said quietly. “It. Was. Amazing!! We have to go again!”

“Totally!” Jessie agreed as she pushed her hair out of her face.

“I’m gonna be sick if I go again,” Wedge lamented pathetically.

“Me too,” Tifa groaned while holding her dizzy head. Still looking like she might keel over, she pulled her phone out when it began ringing in her pocket. She looked at the screen in surprise for a moment before answering. “Hello? ...Yeah, we’re all here. We’re by the rollercoaster, where are… Yeah okay, we’ll wait!”

Less than a minute after she hung up, Zack appeared from the crowd. “Finally!” He panted as he doubled over with his hands on his knees. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you guys!”

“Zack!” Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge cried happily. 

Zack stood up straight and gave them all a sparkling grin. “Did you guys just get off the coaster?” He asked them. He pointed at Cloud. “Did you get this one to go on?”

“Aerith got him out of it,” Jessie told him. 

“Good, that thing looks crazy!” Zack laughed. “Cloud would probably hurl in three seconds flat.”

“I’d at least make it off the ride,” Cloud argued.

“Sure,” Zack said sarcastically. “Me, I like the simple rides. Like the ferris wheel or something!”

“Because it’s simple or because it’s romantic?” Aerith asked teasingly.

“Yeah, how many girls have you taken on one?” Jessie asked with a raised brow.

“For your information, none!” Zack told them. He looked at Tifa and grinned at her. “But… You look like you’re gonna be sick! Wanna go on it with me?”

Tifa blinked her big, brown eyes at him in surprise. “On the ferris wheel? M-Me?” Her face looked flushed, but Cloud couldn’t tell if it was because she was blushing or from the lights of the carnival. “Um…”

Zack nodded. “Or you can let them drag you on the rollercoaster again.”

Tifa shook her head. “Let’s go,” She said immediately.

Zack laughed and followed her away from the group. “We’ll catch up later!” He called to them. 

Cloud watched them go with furrowed brows and pursed lips. He met eyes with Jessie and she gave him a knowing smile, like she was saying _See? I told you so._

“Okay, let’s go!” Biggs said as he and Jessie both grabbed Wedge by the arms to drag him back to the rollercoaster.

“No guys, I’m really gonna throw up!” Wedge whined.

“Oh, stop complaining you baby, you’ll be fine!” Jessie scolded.

Aerith waved to them as Wedge’s cries faded away. She looked in the direction of the ferris wheel and tilted her head. “So… Tifa and Zack?” She asked.

“Zack and Tifa are pretty good friends, too,” Cloud told her. “I mean… Zack is friends with pretty much everyone he meets.”

Aerith nodded and fell quiet for a moment. “They’d make a good couple,” She eventually said softly.

Cloud looked at her in surprise, then back in the direction Zack and Tifa and disappeared off to. He thought of Jessie’s knowing look. Now that he thought of the idea of the two of them together… “Yeah,” He nodded in agreement. “I guess so.”

Aerith turned away from the ferris wheel and looked at Cloud instead. “Well, it’s just us two again. Do you want to go on the carousel with me? That shouldn’t upset your tummy too much.”

Cloud groaned, though he let her grab his arm and began walking in the direction of the carousel. “Don’t say it like I’m five or something.”

“Huh? Wittle Cloud doesn’t wike it?” She asked with a pronounced baby voice.

“I’m leaving,” Cloud said. As he tried to pull away though, Aerith laughed and tugged him back. He let himself be pulled back to her without any fight and looked down at her.

“Okay, okay,” Aerith said, though she was still giggling. “I’ll stop, I promise.”

She lifted her eyes to look up at him. There was a cool purple glow illuminating the carnival that lit her skin, glittering lights from the rides that reflected in the depths of her eyes. Unable to help himself, Cloud leaned down and kissed her swiftly, just because he could.

Aerith looked at him in surprise and blushed slightly. “What was that?” She asked.

“What?” He asked. “Shy about it now?”

Aerith laughed quietly and shook her head. “No, I love it. But… You’re not usually one for public displays.”

Cloud looked around at the crowds of people surrounding them and his ears burned. To be honest, he’d gotten so lost while looking at her, he’d forgotten just where they were and how many people were around them. He cleared his throat and grabbed her hand. “L-Let’s just go,” He said as he pulled her towards the carousel.

Aerith laughed carefree behind him, a sound that he found himself now addicted to. The two of them rode the carousel on side-by-side horses, a scene Aerith took many pictures of as, in her words, there was nothing cuter than Cloud on a plastic horse. They were surrounded by little kids and bored parents and the sounds of screams from the more thrilling rides, but Cloud felt content on his plastic horse. It was simple, relaxing.

The two of them bought some carnival food as dinner when they were done and eventually found themselves with the group again, except for Tifa and Zack. 

“They’re gonna miss the fireworks!” Wedge complained as he looked around.

“They’ll be able to see them wherever they are, Wedge,” Biggs said, much more levelheaded.

“But it’s more fun if we’re all together!” Aerith chimed in.

“Yes! Thank you, Aerith!” Wedge said to her.

Jessie pointed behind Wedge. “You can stop your complaining, they’re coming now.”

“Were you guys waiting for a while?” Tifa asked as she and Zack jogged over to them.

“Nope,” Biggs said, at the same time Wedge cried, “Yes!”

“Did you two have fun?” Jessie asked. There was something about her tone that seemed innocent enough, but lurking beneath the surface was a bit more knowing and mischievous.

“Loads!” Zack said, looking much like an excited puppy. “We went on as many rides as we could and they were all so awesome. Even though Tifa almost threw up.”

Tifa rolled her eyes and focused on the group. “Where should we go to watch the fireworks?”

“Maybe we should just follow the crowd,” Cloud suggested as he gestured to the people leisurely walking in one direction.

The group agreed and turned to walk with the crowd of carnival-goers. They stopped when they reached a line of people, more patrons filling the spaces around and behind them as they all anxiously awaited the fireworks show. Cloud looked up at the sky, which was tinged slightly purple from the haze of the carnival lights.

Then, a light shot up in the sky and exploded in a shower of red lights. Kids screamed for joy as the crowd gasped in awe at the pretty lights in the sky, each firework casting bright lights over them in an array of color.

“So pretty,” Aerith said in an enamored voice, her hands clasped together under her chin as her big eyes sparkled.

_“Yes, what a beautiful moment.”_

Cloud gasped and his eyes went wide when he heard the cold, sinister voice in his ear, just over his shoulder. He whipped around, but the only person behind him was a mother who gave him an annoyed look for his strange behavior. He dropped his eyes to the ground and shook his head with a sigh. Just his imagination, he thought as he turned back around.

He lifted his head, and just inches from his nose was a man’s chest. His heart hammering and his lungs frozen, he slowly lifted his gaze to Sephiroth’s face, those terrifying eyes piercing through him and accompanied with a chilling smile.

Cloud stumbled back in shock and fear. He tried to breathe, but all he could manage were short, trembling gasps for air as Sephiroth took slow, deliberate steps towards him. The noises of the carnival were drowned out, dimmed to nothing but a dull hum, and even the lights from the fireworks seemed darker.

“But just like everything else you’ve come to cherish most,” Sephiroth said as he continued to walk towards Cloud. He held his hand out towards Cloud as if in an offering before clenching his fingers into a tight fist. “I will rip it from your hands.”

“I… you’re…” Cloud tried to speak, but it was like his voice had stopped working. He wanted to scream, but his body wouldn’t let him. He thought he heard other voices around him, complaints of annoyance as he bumped into people trying to put distance between himself and Sephiroth.

Sephiroth’s smirk grew as his eyes narrowed. “You were too late then, Cloud. And you are too late _now._ ”

“Cloud?” Aerith’s voice asked, cutting through the haze. He felt her take his hand, but he couldn’t take his eyes away from Sephiroth to look at her. It was like something was binding him, some sort of connection he did not understand. From the corner of his eye, he saw her look in the same direction he was looking, then back at him, seemingly unable to see what he could. “Cloud, what is it? What’s wrong?”

She stepped between them, facing Cloud and with her back to Sephiroth. Sephiroth looked down at her, a menacing threat, and something sparked in his incandescent eyes that made Cloud jump into action with a cry of her name.

Acting on instinct alone and unaware of just what he was doing, Cloud wrapped his arms around Aerith and turned their bodies around, so his back was facing Sephiroth instead, shielding her. “Cloud? Cloud! What are you doing?!” Aerith cried as she tried to pull back from his iron grip. He shut his eyes tight, waiting for the strike.

_“Time’s up, Cloud.”_

A touch to his cheek brought him back.

He looked down at Aerith, who was giving him that look of gnawing concern, and then behind him. Sephiroth was no longer there. Instead, he saw his friends looking at him with varying degrees of surprise and confusion. Tifa and Zack stepped towards him, sharing Aerith’s same expression. Around Aerith and him, there was a noticeable gap in the crowd as people backed away from him, from the boy with the odd, troubled behavior. A firework went off in the sky again and bathed them in purple.

“Come on,” Aerith said quietly as she took Cloud’s hand to lead him away. He followed numbly behind her, noticing that his hand was trembling in hers.

Aerith pulled him out of the crowd, between the many stalls of the carnival, until they were in an almost entirely secluded area behind the ferris wheel. How many times would this happen, he wondered. It wasn’t the first time Aerith had to pull him away from a crowd of people because his mind played tricks on him, after all.

But this was different. His hands trembled more as he thought of Sephiroth, so close that Cloud could feel the heat of his body. But he wasn’t _real,_ so how could Cloud have felt something so—

“Cloud,” Aerith said quietly as she sat them both down on the grass. She looked upset as she thought of what to say. Finally, she softly said, “It keeps getting worse… whatever this is.”

Cloud felt a pang of guilt at the sound of her voice. He was the one causing her all this worry, her and his mother and everyone else in his life. And she was right, it was only getting worse. His mind felt twisted and confused, like he didn’t know up from down or reality from illusion, and it seemed like things wouldn’t ever go back to how they once were.

“I don’t want to pry, I just…” Aerith sighed and took Cloud’s hand to hold in her lap. “I want to help you, Cloud. But I can’t because I have no idea what’s going on.”

“I…” Cloud began. “I’ve been having these—”

He shut himself up before he shared too much. But Aerith was looking at him with patience and understanding. “You can tell me Cloud, whatever it is,” She told him. She deserved to know, he thought. And of all the people he could tell, he felt the safest with her.

Cloud took a breath and looked at the grass. “I’ve been having… _sometimes,_ I have these dreams.” He would start small, he thought. She didn’t need to know yet that he had the dreams every night. “But they feel more like… memories. I think they _are_ memories. From another life or something...”

Aerith nodded, not at all looking surprised or worried for Cloud’s mental state. She squeezed his hand, encouraging him to continue.

“I… I even dreamt of you before we met,” Cloud admitted to her quietly while looking down at their hands, afraid of what her reaction would be. “I knew who you were. I’d seen you before.”

“In the dreams?” Aerith asked, and Cloud nodded. She thought for a moment, then smiled sheepishly. “Well… That does explain some things.”

Cloud lifted his eyes to her. “What d’you mean?”

“Well, when we met, it felt like I already knew you,” Aerith told him. He nodded at her again—she’d said this to him before. “At first, I thought it was just because you reminded me of Zack but… time went on and I realized how different you were, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling. It was like I had already known you for so long, even when we’d just met. Turns out… we _did_ know each other before.”

Cloud swallowed and frowned at her. “You... don’t think I’m just crazy?” He asked.

Aerith laughed quietly and shook her head. “Of course not, silly goose. I already told you I believe in stuff like that, didn’t I?” She asked him.

Cloud nodded, something lifting off of his chest as he slumped his shoulders in relief from her encouraging words. “Yeah… guess you’re right.”

“It is rather surprising, if I’m being honest. But…” Aerith said with a frown. “That doesn’t explain how you’ve been acting. You have those dreams, so what’s happening when you’re awake?”

“Sometimes, I…” He paused and thought. She was really going to think he was crazy now. “Sometimes it’s like I see the memories when I’m awake, too. Like… something triggers it and it’s like a… I don’t know. A vision, or something. And it feels so real, like I’m really there.”

“...You’re seeing bad things, aren’t you?” Aerith asked after a long moment of silence. “Any time it happens, you look terrified.”

Cloud thought for a moment. Perhaps, other than the vision he saw of Jessie, he hadn’t _really_ seen anything particularly scary. But the feeling he was left with was one of horror, the kind that made him feel cold inside, lost and alone. Unable to find the right words to express this though, he simply shook his head and muttered, “It’s hard to explain.”

Aerith nodded, but pressed no further. He could sense some kind of energy from her, a want to know more, but she kept silent to ease his mind. Eventually though, she told him, “I’m happy you told me. Have you told anyone else?”

Cloud shook his head. “Anyone other than you would think I’m crazy.”

Aerith tilted her head and winked at him. “That’s because I’m crazy too, remember?” 

He couldn’t help but smile at her teasing, especially when she began giggling at her own joke. There was a pop from above and then the area was covered in a red glow. She and Cloud both looked up at the sky, where a shower of crimson sparks were fading away.

“Oh, the fireworks are still going,” Aerith said as another was shot into the air and exploded into a circle of blue.

Cloud looked from the sky and back at Aerith. Seeing her skin reflecting the shifting colors of the fireworks reminded him of something—his dream, the gondola ride. In the dream, he’d felt longing for her. She’d been so close, and she’d even leaned in even closer, and yet she still felt so far, like she was something he could never grasp. But now…

Aerith looked over at him with a small smile. “What are you thinking about, Cloud?”

Cloud swallowed. “I…”

There were words at the tip of his tongue, intense words and feelings he couldn’t make sense of. Were they his own feelings, or those from a distant past? Memories he never lived muddled with his own until he couldn’t differentiate the two. He felt love building in his chest, but where did it come from? Now, or then? It felt too soon to feel so strongly, yet at the same time, he’d known her for longer than his entire life, hadn’t he? Every small moment with her from then until now continued to build upon his feelings.

His throat closed up before he could say anything, but there was something in Aerith’s gaze, knowing or understanding. Cloud was beginning to think that was just how she looked all the time, like she had this aura of wisdom beyond her years. She scooted on the grass until she was pressed up against his side so she could lay her head on his shoulder. Cloud hadn’t realized how tense he was until then, and for her comfort, he released a long sigh, relaxed his shoulders, and shut his eyes.

After a while sitting together like that, when the fireworks had finally ended and they heard the movement of people returning to the carnival activities, Aerith lifted her head again. Cloud hadn’t realized how tranquil the moment was until she moved; it was like he had fallen into a meditative space, his mind free of the thoughts that had been bothering him and focused instead on the weight of her at his side.

He blinked his eyes open to look at her, but she kissed him before he could. She smiled against his lips as she pressed in closer, her arms slipping around him, and Cloud felt helpless to her tempting pull. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her just as close while kissing her back. He should be worried that someone might stumble upon their spot and find them in this compromising position, but Aerith was like a mage and lips were a spell. One touch, and he was deaf and blind to everything but her.

She pulled back eventually, her fingers dancing along the baby hairs at the nape of his neck in a way that made him shiver, and smiled at him. “We should get going, shouldn’t we? The others are probably worried about you.”

“Or grateful the nutjob is off their hands,” Cloud mumbled.

“Give them some credit!” Aerith said with a laugh as she quickly hopped to her feet. She grabbed Cloud’s wrist and pulled him up with surprising strength. “Come on. Let’s just let them know you’re okay, then we can get out of here, okay?”

“Don’t you want to stay longer?” Cloud asked as Aerith pulled him back to the thick of the carnival.

To his surprise, Aerith shook her head. “It’s no fun if you’re not feeling well. Besides, I did everything I wanted to do! Let’s go watch a movie, or go to an arcade—whatever you want!”

Cloud thought for a moment, then nodded. “Let’s go to a park.”

“Huh?” Aerith looked at him. “A park?”

Cloud nodded again. “Yeah. Some place quiet.”

Aerith blinked, then smiled. “Sure,” She said. “That sounds really nice.”

So, that’s what they did. They found their group, where Aerith did the majority of the talking to inform them that Cloud wasn’t feeling well and they would be leaving early. With looks of concern burning holes in his back, Cloud left the carnival with her. They walked away from the cacophony of the area until the space around them was almost silent except for the sounds of their footsteps and crickets singing.

Aerith was the one that found a park. It was dark and empty, and she ran ahead to climb to the top of a jungle gym while calling for Cloud to join her. He did as she requested and pulled himself up to sit at her side. Aerith pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs and Cloud leaned back on one hand to look up at the sky.

His gaze was pulled to her though, and after a while of staring, she looked back at him. She lifted her brows in question. “What?” She asked.

Cloud shook his head. “Nothing, just… your eyes,” He murmured. He’d never seen eyes like hers, impressive in color and bright with youthful optimism. Something about them made him feel happy.

She smiled at him. He thought of one of his earliest dreams—the first time he’d been able to see her face was when he dreamt of a park like this. That place had been very different; the park was rundown looking, not at all like the well kept one they sat in now.

Above them though, the stars looked eerily familiar.

 _She’s knelt in front of him, raised on an altar. Her hands are clasped together in prayer and slowly, she opens her eyes and looks at him. She blinks and smiles at him and he looks steadily back at her. There’s something there, something she does not put into words. It feels like a reassurance._ Everything will be okay, _she would say if she could._

_But a sword stabs through her before she can._

_Her eyes go wide as her hands fall and her body bows over the long blade, her blood dripping slowly down the length of it. It’s_ him _behind her, Sephiroth, smiling like he’s just won the war as he pulls his sword from her body. The ribbon tying her hair back falls as her head tips back and a glowing orb bounces away from her, past his shocked still body and into the water below._

_He thinks he yells her name. He can’t hear anything though. He rushes forward and catches her body in his arms before she can fall to the cold ground. His hand grips her shoulder so hard it’s trembling._

_“...Aerith…” He whispers. He waits for her to respond. She always has something to say to him, she is always able to ease his mind. Her eyes stay shut though and her blood burns his hands. “This can’t be real…!”_

_He hears a voice behind him, the one that usually paralyzes him with fear. This time, it’s something else that stills his heart and stops his breathing._

_“...Shut up,” He hisses. “The cycle of nature and your stupid plan don’t mean a thing... Aerith is gone… She’ll no longer talk… no longer laugh or smile, or cry… or get angry...”_

_He looks at her. He wants to beg her to open her eyes but he doesn’t, because he knows it would be pointless. He needs to see them; the green of them are like life itself and without them, he feels… He pulls her close and holds her tight._

_“What about us… what are we supposed to do…? What about_ my _pain?” He feels something wet drip down his nose. “My fingers are tingling… my mouth is dry… my eyes are burning…!”_

_He wants to scream. He doesn’t want to believe what is happening right in front of him. Wasn’t he stronger than this? Wasn’t he her bodyguard? Wasn’t he supposed to... protect her…?_

_He never gets the answer. The scene around him fades away, though he still feels the weight of her body in his arms._

In the middle of the night, Cloud woke with tears spilling from his eyes and a hollowness in his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!
> 
> if you've made it this far, do me a favor and watch _**Criminal**_ by TAEMIN (sorry, gotta promote where I can but it's so good i promise)
> 
> [CRIMINAL MV](https://youtu.be/hFQL7BS6lrs)   
>  [buy me a coffee?](https://ko-fi.com/yououui)   
>  [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/yououuii)   
> 


	9. oneirophrenia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud's other memories make him scared of himself, but Aerith has a way of soothing those fears. That is until Cloud meets someone in a strange reality he can't be sure is not also a dream, and his thoughts begins twisting with another soul's.
> 
> _oneirophrenia—a state where a person becomes confused about the distinction between reality and dream as if he or she were living in a dream state._

_ All he can do is fall to his knees. He’s too weak. He’s  _ always _ been weak. _

_ But soft hands cradle him close and sooth him like a mother’s touch. “Cloud… Be strong, okay?” A voice says. He reaches blindly and clings onto the person in front of him, an anchor in the sea of darkness. _

_ “What did I do…?” He asks. He feels like a child, a little boy lost and alone. “Tell me… Aerith…?” _

_ “Cloud… You didn’t do anything wrong,” She assures him. _

_ She’s wrong though, isn’t she? He lifts his head to look at her. His vision is still blurred at the edges and his mind scattered, but one thing that is clear is her smiling face. She touches his cheek and nods, and he thinks vainly for a brief moment that maybe, if she’s next to him, he can be stronger. Aerith is so good, so true and so right. Surely her light will overpower the darkness. _

_ But then, something bleeds into his mind, something sinister and cruel. His hands shake and he yanks back from her, afraid.  _

_ “I—” He gasps as he stumbles to his feet and grabs at his hair. He shakes his head and fights the intruder in his thoughts, but he’s still too weak.  _ This isn’t me, _ he tells himself as a second voice in his head grows louder.  _ I’m not like this, I’m not, I’m not I’m not I’m not _ — _

_ “I’m—!” _

_ He loses the battle and his vision goes blank. He's deafened by a sea of voices screaming in his head and he just wants it to stop. He just wants it to be quiet. _

_ He feels his fists connecting with skin in brutal hits. He feels the ground dig into his knees as he kneels and continues to beat the person below him. He can’t see, he can’t feel, but deep in his mind, he screams at himself to stop. His voice is drowned out by the cacophony in his head, and he thinks that maybe if he does what they say, the noise will finally stop and the splitting pain in his skull will disappear. _

_ He feels a touch on his cheek and his mind goes quiet like a flip was switched. His fist halts as he pulls it back, stilled as he blinks and sees green eyes— _ eye, _ only one, because the other is swollen shut and purple—looking up at him. Her cheek is bruised and cut, there’s blood dripping from her lips, but somehow, she still manages to smile. _

_ His lungs freeze and his heart stops beating. What had he done? And why… to her…? _

_ “Oh…” She whispers when she sees the change in his eyes. “There you are…” _

_ Someone yells his name and he scrambles away from her. He grabs the sides of his head, her blood hot where it smears against his skin, and he screams.  _

_ “Look at what you’ve done to her,” A voice whispers in his head. “And you call yourself human?” _

_ Someone touches his shoulder and the world goes black. _

“There you are!”

Aerith looked like a walking advertisement for late autumn weather. With winter just around the corner and the days getting colder, she had taken to wearing a light coat with a plush scarf almost daily. Her uniform had changed slightly as well, as now she wore white tights and a pink sweater to help combat the chilliness, and on her head was a matching pink knit hat. She was adorable, especially, Cloud thought, in comparison to himself.

Cloud was typically too lazy or tired to do more than throw on a jacket now that the weather was colder. And though he didn’t spend long looking at himself in the mirror, he knew that there must be dark bags hanging under his dry eyes.

Sleeping through the night was becoming more and more difficult. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Cloud didn’t  _ want _ to sleep. The dreams he’d had shook him to the core, and he was scared of what else he would see when he shut his eyes. His nights had become a cycle of trying to stay awake, inevitably falling asleep, then waking again from a horrible nightmare.

Aerith ran over to Cloud and reached out to take his hand, but Cloud twisted his body to pull his hand out of her reach. He saw the disappointment on her face immediately, even though she tried to hide it. More guilt ate away at him; he hadn’t meant to do it, not really, but it was like his body instinctively tried to keep her away for fear of hurting her. After what he'd seen the night before...

Cloud swallowed the feeling of nausea building at the memory. It was only a dream, he tried to tell himself as he clenched his shaking hands into fists. He would never— _ could _ never—do such a thing. Still, he could remember with disgusting detail the feeling of his fists when they—

“So,” Aerith said as she stuck her hands into her pockets instead. Her smile wavered. “What shall we do?”

Cloud looked at her pocketed hands in guilt. He wasn’t sure what was worse; the fear he felt or the intense remorse over making her feel so bad. That was the opposite of what he was supposed to do. He was supposed to make her feel happy and carefree, he was supposed to make her forget about her worries. Now, he was the cause of them.

Pushing down his own doubts, Cloud stepped up closer to her and shyly draped his arm over her shoulders. Aerith looked at him in surprise but her face brightened immediately. “Why don’t we just walk?” Cloud suggested quietly while avoiding her big eyes, his face hot. Shouldn’t he be used to this by now? They’d been dating for a while, yet each close encounter with her had his mind blanking out and his blood pounding in his ears. “I need to just… clear my head.”

Aerith smiled at him and nodded. “Yeah. A walk sounds nice.” She led Cloud down the sidewalk and he followed without question. “There’s a nice path just down this way. It’s best in spring, with all the flowers blooming.”

Cloud nodded as they turned into a park and continued down a hill, towards said path. “We should come back then.” 

“Definitely,” Aerith grinned.

She was right, the path was nice. Peaceful, quiet. It led away from the park and into a lightly wooded area, trees on either side of them. It was a bit depressing to look at now, since all the leaves had fallen and the trees looked dead and bare, but there was something oddly comforting about it, too. Like the cold weather had frozen time itself to just that moment of the two of them together.

There were a few people walking, a few more biking or jogging. A mother pushed her baby in a stroller, bundled up so much, Cloud could barely see its red, chubby cheeks. A dog ran up and jumped at Aerith’s legs, and she happily cooed and pet it until its owner pulled it away. The sun was beginning to set earlier and earlier these days, their shadows already stretching long against the dark pavement even though it wasn’t that late.

Aerith eventually took one hand out of her pocket and lifted it to hold Cloud’s, the one still hanging over her shoulder. Her hand was warm from being tucked away, and Cloud hadn’t realized how cold his was until she touched his skin, the slight contact almost burning. She glanced up at him for a brief moment, almost like she was gauging his reaction, and when he didn’t do anything to push her hand away, she faced forward again.

“Cloud… Are you upset with me?” She asked suddenly.

Cloud was so surprised by the question he almost tripped. “What?” He asked her. “Of course not.”

“You just seem… a bit distant,” Aerith said. Her voice was as light as ever, but the words she was saying betrayed her tone. Now, Cloud had even more to feel guilty for.

“I… I’d never get mad at you,” Cloud told her, quiet and honest. 

“Never say never,” She said in a sing-song tone. “What if I… pushed you in an ice-cold river?”

“I’d dry off,” Cloud shrugged. He knew she was only teasing him to try and lighten the mood, but Cloud wasn’t teasing back. Try as he might, he couldn’t think of a thing Aerith could do that would upset him. Hell, she could rip out his heart and stomp it into the ground and laugh while she did it and he'd still find it hard to be angry with her. If anything, with how he’d been acting, it was a wonder that she wasn’t more upset with  _ him. _

“I think you’d at least yell a little bit first,” Aerith said in a kind of know-it-all way, which was deserved, seeing as she seemed to know Cloud better than anyone, even the people that had known him for much longer. She quieted for a moment as they turned a bend in the path, then took a quiet breath and said, “So… Is it your dreams?”

Cloud swallowed and, silently, nodded.

“Then, did I—or, man, this is kind of confusing, isn’t it?—the  _ other _ me, did  _ she _ do something?” Aerith asked.

“No,” Cloud said quickly. “It’s not you. Here or there it’s—it’s never  _ you, _ it’s—”

_ It’s me, _ Cloud’s thoughts continued as he abruptly cut himself off. _ I’m the one that isn’t good for you. Whether I’m making you sad here, or because I’m— _

Cloud's throat tightened up as he was again reminded of his dreams. He'd seen her blood far too many times—dripping down the length of a sword because of his inability to protect her or burning him where it stained his own skin. Cloud's fingers twitched as the fear of touching her rose again but Aerith, not wanting Cloud to pull away, tightened her hold on his hand and rubbed her thumb against the back of his knuckles. He hadn’t even noticed that they’d stopped walking.

“I wish there was something I could do,” Aerith said solemnly, frowning like she was the one that had something to feel bad for. “I just feel awful knowing that you’re going through this all alone.”

“It's not your fault,” Cloud murmured.

“I know that,” Aerith nodded. “But you—I mean, what you’re seeing, it must not be good and I just… I can see it, Cloud. I can see how much it’s eating away at you and I hate it. And if I could take the burden from you, I would.”

Cloud lifted his heavy eyes to look at her. Her thin brows were pinched in frustration and her lips were pressed into a tight frown, like she was about to cry. “I’m sorry,” He said suddenly. “I just keep worrying you.”

Aerith adamantly shook her head. “No, Cloud, don’t you worry about worrying _ me. _ You can tell me anything. Even if you think you shouldn’t, you can. Because you know, it worries me even more when you try to bottle it all up. So if you need someone to help carry the load, I’m right here.”

Cloud, despite the tense atmosphere, felt the corner of his lips pull up in a small smile. Even Aerith seemed surprised by his smile, based on the way her eyes went wide and she blinked at him in question. Cloud sighed and shook his head, looking down at their feet. “I don’t know how you have the energy to deal with me,” He said quietly.

“You say that like you’re something to deal with,” Aerith said as she dipped her head a bit to look at his face. He lifted his head again to satisfy her and she smiled. “It’s easy, Cloud. I  _ want _ to help you. I want you to feel better and have happy days. So, I’m willing to do whatever I can to make sure that happens.”

_ That wasn’t a hard thing for her to do, _ Cloud considered telling her. All she had to do was stay by his side. And he felt that, no matter the universe, that was all he ever wanted and what would make him happiest. But life was unfair sometimes, and he’d lost her before. But he’d make sure he wouldn’t let her go, this time.

Cloud took a deep breath. “In the dreams,” He said as he began walking again, so no one would look at them strangely. “You… It doesn’t end well.”

“Yes, I thought as much,” Aerith nodded slowly with a frown. She didn’t seem upset at all by it. "With the way you look at me sometimes, I just figured..."

“I don’t know exactly happened, it’s all still jumbled up, but…” Cloud looked into the bare trees. “I know that.”

“For both of us?” Aerith asked while tilting her head. “Or just me?”

Cloud thought of how to answer that. It happened to her specifically, but it destroyed him. Even if he survived, it didn’t seem like he got a very happy ending. But, knowing what exactly she was asking, he replied, “You. Zack, too. And… my mom.”

Cloud thought of the vision of Zack, the dream of his burning home, the memories of Aerith, all so clear and real that if someone told him that he had lived through it all himself, he’d probably believe them. 

But then… He also remembered some of the good memories. Running around with kids chasing his heels, wooden swords strapped to their backs. His friends, all still by his side, reminding him that he wasn’t truly alone. Still, even with that, he couldn’t shake the odd, hollow feeling spreading in his chest. The guilt that he had been the reason they lost their happy ending, if he'd just done something differently, if he'd just _known_ better.

"Cloud...?" Aerith questioned softly when he didn't say anything else.

“Hey,” He said suddenly. “Why don’t we go visit the orphanage?”

Aerith looked at him with a lopsided smile. “Really? You want to? You’ve never suggested it yourself before.”

Cloud nodded. “Yeah. It’ll be a good distraction.”

“Okay then,” Aerith said happily. “Let’s go! Though, they might be a little upset that I don’t have any flowers.”

“You’ll bring some in a few days,” Cloud responded. “They can’t whine about it.”

Aerith just laughed and grabbed Cloud by the arm to drag him along. She chattered lightly as they went, the mood lifting as the sun lowered. By the time they got to the orphanage, it was already dark out and the front lawn was glowing from the lights pouring out through the windows. As soon as Aerith opened the door, they were hit with a wave of happy cries from the children.

The two were surrounded within seconds by all of the children, except for two—Marlene, who ran off presumably to tell Barret, and a boy with shaggy brown hair that barely glanced up from the book he was reading in the corner. Cloud hadn’t seen him before. Or at least, he thought he hadn't, but the kid looked strangely familiar.

“What are you two doing here?” Barret asked as he walked in from another room, pulling Cloud's attention away from the boy.

“What, don’t want us here?” Cloud asked, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly.

Aerith slapped his arm halfheartedly. “We just wanted to stop by! We thought it would be fun to play some games with everyone.”

At the mention of games, the room once again exploded with excited cheers. Barret laughed, low and booming, and nodded. “Well, alright then. You two got good timing, seeing as dinner’s just about done.”

Cloud couldn’t help but smile down at the kids around him. There was something about hearing them so happy, it helped make him happy, too. His eyes swept over the familiar group until they landed on a boy in the corner again. He seemed entirely uninterested in Cloud and Aerith’s arrival.

“Come on, dinner crew, I need your help,” Barret said to the kids, and a group of kids Cloud assumed had already been told to help with dinner split off from the rest of the group to follow Barret to the kitchen.

“Aerith! Come see what we made!” A girl said while pulling on Aerith’s hand. The kids all pulled Aerith through a side door, leaving Cloud behind.

He looked around awkwardly before his eyes caught the boy again. He hadn’t even looked up from his book. Cloud walked over to him and shoved his hands in his pocket. “Um. Hey,” Cloud said stiffly when he was in front of the boy.

The boy lifted his blue eyes to look at Cloud. “Hey,” The boy responded.

“I’ve never seen you here before,” Cloud said to him. “Did you just get here?”

The boy nodded and looked back down at his book. “Yeah.”

Cloud wasn’t usually very good with reading emotions, but even with the boy’s blank face and dull voice, Cloud could tell that the boy wasn’t happy. And of course he wasn’t, Cloud told himself. Something had to have happened for him to end up here.

Cloud knelt beside the chair the boy was sitting in and held out his hand. “I’m Cloud.”

The boy looked from Cloud’s hand to his face a couple of times before hesitantly reaching out to shake Cloud’s hand. “I’m Denzel,” The boy responded as they lightly shook hands. He paused for a moment as he pulled his hand back. “...Cloud’s a pretty cool name.”

Cloud gave him a little smile and nodded at him. “So’s Denzel.”

That pulled a small smile from Denzel. He shyly looked back down at his book, but he wasn’t really reading it. He kept peering at Cloud then quickly looking back at the page. Cloud gestured to it. “You like to read?” He asked.

Denzel nodded and glanced at Cloud once again. “Do you?”

Cloud shrugged. “Yeah, sometimes. But now I mostly read comics and manga.”

Denzel looked away in thought for a moment. “I’ve… never read a comic.”

“Really?” Cloud asked him. “They’re awesome. I have a bunch, I’ll bring some for you next time I come.”

Denzel’s eyes brightened at the promise. “You will?”

“Yeah,” Cloud nodded. “Me and Aerith usually come once or twice every couple of weeks. I’ll bring loads for you.”

Denzel’s smile grew a bit and he nodded. “O-Okay,” He responded.

Cloud looked over his shoulder, at the door everyone else had disappeared through, and gestured to it. “Why don’t we go see what everyone’s up to?” He suggested. “It’s pretty quiet in here.”

Denzel closed his book and looked down at it. “I like quiet,” He said.

“Me too,” Cloud told him. “But sometimes it’s fun to be loud, too.”

Denzel looked at the cover of his book, then back at Cloud with a nod. Cloud stood, giving Denzel room to stand from his chair and leave his book behind. The two followed the sounds of the children in the other room and when they pushed the door open, it only got louder. Aerith was knelt down, looking at something the kids were showing her.

She lifted her head to look at Cloud and the noise dulled. Her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail that twisted down her back and she was wearing a simple pink dress with a cropped red jacket over it. As if the world were moving in slow motion, she looked at Cloud and smiled gently, then stood. She tilted her head in curiosity.

_ “Cloud?” _

“Cloud!”

Cloud blinked, startled, and suddenly Aerith was right in front of him, so close their noses were almost touching. She pouted up at him, her cheeks still pink from the cold weather outside, her clothes more fit for the chilly temperature. This was his Aerith once again.

“Hello? Anyone in there?” She asked as she knocked her knuckles gently against the top of his head.

“Uh…” Cloud frowned awkwardly at her, unsure of what to say to explain his momentary absence.

_“Ooh!”_ Some of the kids cooed when they saw how close Cloud and Aerith were standing, some of the other kids hiding their eyes behind their hands (and some still peeking out to see what would happen). 

Cloud took a clumsy step back before the kids got any weird ideas and Aerith giggled at him, eyeing him with a look that wasn’t upset or annoyed, but understanding and knowledgeable. Her eyes looked the same as the other Aerith’s—not just the color, but the wisdom held within them. Cloud supposed that that was one thing that would always be the same with her.

Aerith then turned her eyes on the kids, who all scurried with giggles like they’d just been caught eavesdropping. Only Denzel seemed unaffected as he watched the other kids run excitedly around him. Aerith gave Cloud one last amused look, then clapped her hands to get the kids’ attention.

“Alright, alright you little troublemakers!” She called to them. “We need to wash our hands before dinner! Fall in line!”

Like little soldiers, the kids did as she ordered and marched off to the bathrooms to wash up. Except Denzel, who tailed awkwardly behind like a little duckling.

After a large meal and some games with the kids (Cloud won every round until Aerith kicked him under the table, then he pretended to lose), Cloud and Aerith were walking home under the light of street lamps and the moon. Aerith sighed happily and patted her stomach. “That was good!”

“Mm,” Cloud hummed in agreement.

Aerith looked at Cloud and smiled. “That new boy, what was his name again?”

“Denzel,” Cloud answered her.

“Right,” She nodded. “You two seemed to have a lot of fun together! He looked absolutely in love with you by the time we left.”

Cloud thought about it for a moment, how Denzel’s apprehensive attitude shifted to something more accepting and his smile grew bigger as his time spent with Cloud went on. “I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere,” Cloud said as he thought of that wide smile.

“You’ve probably met him before,” Aerith said with a little nudge to his side. 

“Yeah, probably,” Cloud agreed. “Just haven’t remembered that yet.”

Aerith took Cloud’s hand and this time, he didn’t flinch away from her touch. “You seem to be feeling a lot better,” She told him. “The kids really did help.”

Cloud nodded and glanced at her. He thought of the brief vision he’d had in the orphanage, then shook it off and looked forward again, down the dark sidewalk. “Y’know… the memories are gonna end eventually,” He told her suddenly.

Aerith nodded slowly. “Yes, I suppose that’s true…”

“So once I remember everything, I guess this’ll all just stop,” He continued. “And things can go back to normal.”

“Doesn't that seem so boring though?” She asked him.

“Huh?” Cloud blinked and looked down at her. “What’d’ya mean?”

“I mean, compared to that other life!” She said excitedly. “All we do is go to school and study. What about that other life, huh? What are things like there? The _good_ things, I mean.”

“Well…” Cloud scratched the back of his neck with his free hand. “I... have a giant sword. Like, massive. And I fight monsters. You do, too.”

“I do?!” Aerith cried excitedly. “Am I good at it? Tell me, tell me!”

Cloud laughed quietly to himself and nodded. “Yeah, you’re great. You’re like a mage or something. You use magic.”

“Wow, that’s so cool!” Aerith squealed. She gestured to the empty street around them. “So, see what I mean? This is so boring!”

“I don’t know,” Cloud said as he looked around the quiet, peaceful night. It was getting too cold for bugs to still be out, but he could still hear a couple of crickets holding on and singing their song. “I think if you were to ask the other Cloud, he’d probably say that this is exactly the kind of life he’d want. Peaceful, easy.”

_With you,_ he thought, though he kept that to himself.

Aerith thought about it for a moment then nodded. “I guess you’re right,” She said. “From what you’ve told me, it doesn’t seem like he had a very easy life. I bet he’d love this. So we’d better live it up for him, okay?”

Cloud smiled at her and nodded. “Yeah.”

Aerith then stood on her tiptoes and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. Cloud was sure that the other version of himself never got anything like that either, and that alone made this life a million times better than the other, even for all the good stuff he might have had in Midgar.

“Come on, my mom’s gonna kill me if I’m late,” Aerith said as she tugged on Cloud’s hand to get him to walk quicker.

As always, Cloud followed where Aerith led.

—

_ In front of him is a vast, never-ending sea of white. Below his feet, a field of flowers—white and yellow lilies. And behind him, right against his back, is a familiar presence. _

_ “You came, even though you’re about to break.” _

_ He turns his head slightly like he’s about to look over his shoulder, but stops himself before he can see her. There’s an ache in his chest at the sound of her voice, a pain that never fully went away but now flares up like the dagger has been twisted. He’d wanted to hear her voice again for so long, but now that he can, it only hurts him more. It’s a reminder of all that he lost and what he can never get back. _

_ “That’s a good sign,” She continues. Her voice softens to something comforting as her hand touches his arm. _

_ He turns his head away from her touch. She squeezes his arm, comforting and understanding and  _ there. _ She isn’t upset by his subtle rejection. She knows he’s only trying to protect his fragile state of mind and cracking heart. Because out of everyone he’s ever met, she’s always known him the best. _

_ “So, why did you come?” She asks, her voice back to its usual playfulness as her hand pulls away. Perhaps it’s because she knows that her teasing nature typically lifts his mood. That seems like an impossible task now, though. _

_ He thinks for a moment before finally, quietly, saying, “I think… I want to be forgiven.” _

_ He can’t see her, but he knows that her head is tilted as she cheekily asks, “By who?” _

_ Her tone is light, answering the question he didn’t quite ask. She knows  _ exactly  _ who he wants to be forgiven by, but she’s already forgiven him. And he knows that, she knows he does or else she wouldn’t ask in such a way. So then, who else? _

_ If not by her, then…? _

_ “I never blamed you. Not even once.” _

_ He is left still asking the question. _

_ By… who? _

_ He shuts his eyes and lets out a quiet breath. _

_ By... _

Cloud woke without realizing it at first, his eyes still shut and his chest still aching. He swallowed, the unanswered question still lingering on his mind.  _ Go back to sleep, _ he told himself. He wanted to know what else she had to say.  _ Just… go back to sleep. _

But, after a long while, he realized that keeping his eyes closed wouldn’t take him back to the dream. With a resigned sigh, he opened his eyes.

He expected to see the ceiling of his bedroom, dark in the night or maybe just barely illuminated by the rising sun. He expected to be under his covers, groggy from sleep and his head buried in his pillow.

Instead, he was standing up. Instead of his bedroom, he saw the same void of white he’d just seen in his dream. Under his feet, a field lilies.

He looked down at himself. He’s only fallen back asleep, he thought to himself as he looked at the black outfit he wore. He went back to the dream. But immediately, he knew that something wasn't right. He wasn’t simply watching old memories, unable to change them, unable to do as he liked or say what he pleased.

Instead, he was…  _ there. _ He was lucid, not simply a witness to events already passed. When he thought to lift his arm, his arm raised. When he thought to make a fist, his gloved hand curled. He was there, controlling himself, determining his own actions. But he can’t change a memory, so then this was…?

“You came.”

And unlike his memory, when he heard that same voice and those same words, this time he spun around to face her.

As expected, Aerith stood before him, practically glowing from the bright white that surrounded them. The Aerith from his other self’s memories, the one with the long hair that hung down her back in a twist, the one with the pink dress and the cropped red jacket and the same eyes. The Aerith that died too young.

She blinked her big, brilliantly green eyes and tilted her head. She smiled like she was patiently waiting for him to say something.

“I—but you’re—” Cloud stammered as he took one step back in surprise. His own motions, his own voice, not a memory’s,  _ this wasn’t a memory. _

But it was still a dream, he told himself. It had to be. There was no other explanation, even if the Aerith standing in front of him felt as real as the Aerith from his life, this couldn't actually be _real._ Because she was—

As he tried to get his thoughts in order, so confused and dizzied by what was happening, he heard a second voice in his head. A voice the same as his, but not his own.

_ I missed you _ , the voice said, so strong and clear that Cloud almost said it himself. The voice continued.  _ Aerith, I— _

Cloud, more out of instinct than anything else, put a hand to his temple and shook his head like it could shake the second voice away. He felt an odd sensation spreading from his chest, felt his limbs get lighter and his head go fuzzy like he was about to lose the control he had. Like the body he was in was not his own, like that voice was about to swallow him whole and take over.

Then, a smaller hand covered his, and the sensation faded, bringing him back to that moment. Aerith was standing just in front of him, her hand on his and a comforting smile on her face. He took a step back from her out of shock, his hand falling back to his side, and looked around.

Under her touch and attention, the other voice faded as if appeased, giving Cloud a moment to take a breath and eventually ask, “...Is this a dream?”

She held her arms out and looked around. “You tell me.”

“It… doesn’t feel like one,” He admitted to her. 

She looked up, turned slowly around once to get a good look at the nothingness around them. “No, it doesn’t, does it?” She responded, though she didn't seem nearly as upset by this as Cloud was. She looked at him again, the moment going quiet for a moment as she simply regarded him with a small smile. “I missed you, Cloud.”

The voice inside him rose again, wanting to respond, but he pushed it down this time. “W-What do you mean?” He asked her. “I thought you were…”

He didn't finish the sentence, but they both knew what he was going to say.

_ I thought you were dead. _

“Ah, so you’ve remembered,” Aerith said with a curt little nod. She looked at him with happiness and longing for something he didn’t understand. “But it’s much better here, isn’t it? You seem so much happier.”

“Here?” Cloud asked. One word, yet it held a strange weight. Here in this void is not what she meant.

Aerith put her hands behind her back and began taking some random, dawdling steps around the area they stood in. “I know it’s everything you’ve ever wanted,” She continued without answering. He had to turn to keep an eye on her as she walked. “And it makes me so happy that you can finally have it. But… I still can’t help but miss you. It's a little selfish of me.”

“What’re you—?” He started to ask before she came to a halt. He looked at her steadily, his eyes narrowed. “I don’t understand.”

Aerith took one step towards him so she was close enough to put her hand on his cheek. Cloud was expecting her touch to be cold, but instead it was warm, like she’d just been resting under an afternoon sun. He blinked down at her, confused. By now he was used to that touch. But there were mixed feelings brewing in his chest, combatting one another; his usual heart-racing exhilaration from her touch and the debilitating ache that threatened to break his heart right down the middle.

“Nothing lasts forever,” She said quietly with a wistful smile. “That’s why… you need to embrace this moment. Before you lose it.”

“Aerith…?” He questioned, his voice barely above a whisper.

She pulled her touch away, the tips of her fingers grazing the line of his chin, and with a momentary lapse of control of himself, his hand lifted to try and keep a hold on her. Like she was made of light itself, his hand passed right through her. He looked down into his empty palm and clenched his fist, then looked back up at her.

“Almost morning,” She said as she stepped back from him with a rather sad smile. “Time for you to go.”

“Wait,” He said as he stepped closer to her, trying to close the distance. “I don’t—what are you talking about?”

“Just remember Cloud,” Aerith said as if she hadn’t heard his question, turning away from him. “I’ll always be right here.”

She turned her head to look back at him one last time with a smile. "I'm happy I could see you again," She said quietly as the white around them grew brighter. 

_“Aerith!”_ Cloud cried as he reached out his hand to try and stop her, to stop the moment before it ended, to stop her from disappearing again.

He wasn’t sure if it was himself reaching for her or the other voice inside of him, but as his hand closed around her wrist, the white void enveloped them both and she faded from his grasp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the 3 month break. i promise this story will be finished! even if it takes me a while, i won't leave this story unfinished, you have my word. but fair warning... it might take a _really_ long time.  
> also i'm sorry that this chapter is a bit shorter than the others! honestly what took me a while was trying to make it longer, but I realized that that would only be pointless filler and decided to keep this one a bit shorter.
> 
> [buy me a coffee?](https://ko-fi.com/yououui)  
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> 


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